Destined
by InvisiMeg
Summary: Quinn knew fighting Shelby would be hard, but she didn't know it was going to make her life fall apart. With the help of her friends, she defeated the vampire, but lost the person who meant the most to her. Now, things are going to get even harder as she continues to face her destiny and learns of a new evil in Lima. The sequel to Chosen.
1. The Start

**As promised, here's the sequel for Chosen. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – The Start**

Rachel looked around her room; she couldn't remember where she put her new notebook, and if she didn't find it soon, she was going to be late. Not only had she misplaced it, but she had also lost both her phone and her shoes that morning. She knew it had to be from nerves. She was usually excited about the first day of school, but not this year.

Okay, she was a little excited, but mostly nervous. She hadn't seen Quinn in weeks, hadn't spoken to her in months, and she didn't know what it was going to be like to see her today. The last time she had actually spoken to Quinn was the last day of school when the blonde asked her to give her space and to essentially leave her alone over the break.

So that's what Rachel did. She gave Quinn her space and hadn't talked to her all summer, only seeing her when they happened to run into each other while in town.

Rachel hated it, though. She hated that she hurt Quinn and she just wanted the other girl to forgive her. She knew she did a terrible thing by lying to Quinn and had apologized countless times, begging for Quinn to forgive her. But Quinn hadn't, and every time they happened to catch each other's eyes, Rachel could still see the hurt. It was almost a relief when the school year ended and she didn't have to see that look five days a week.

"Are you ready?"

Rachel looked at her father, who was standing in the doorway. "Almost, Daddy." She opened her desk drawer and rummaged around. "I just need to find my notebook."

"Do you mean the purple one that's sitting on your bed?" Leroy asked.

Rachel looked at her bed; sure enough, the notebook was sitting right on top of her comforter in plain view. "Oh, I didn't see it there."

"Are you okay?" Leroy asked, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"I'm fine," Rachel absentmindedly replied.

"Is it about Quinn?" Leroy asked.

Rachel sighed. "Yes."

After the whole ordeal at the cemetery with Shelby, Rachel couldn't exactly lie to her father anymore. He had seen everything and there was no way of explaining it except with the truth. He was less surprised about everything than she thought he would be, but he told her he always thought there was something off about the town.

"I just wish I could fix everything," Rachel continued after a few moments of silence.

"Well, sometimes you can't," Leroy replied. "Sometimes it just takes time, but other times—other times you just can't fix it. Sometimes things are irrevocably broken and there is nothing you can do about it no matter how hard you try."

Rachel hoped this wasn't one of those times; she didn't know what she would do if Quinn never forgave her. At the time, Rachel really thought she was doing the right thing, which only made it feel worse. She thought she was protecting Quinn, but it only messed everything up.

"Have you spoken to her lately?" Leroy asked.

Rachel shook her head. "I saw her a few weeks ago at the movie theater, but I left her alone like she asked."

Leroy walked over to Rachel and gave her a hug. "For what it's worth, I think everything will work out in the end."

"Do you really think so?" Rachel asked with a sniffle.

"I do," Leroy replied. "I think she would have forgiven you already if she no longer loved you, and if she still loves you, I believe there's hope."

Rachel looked down, thinking about what he said. She wanted to believe him, but the longer Quinn continued to ignore her, the more she began giving up hope for some sort of reconciliation.

"Are you ready to go?" Leroy asked as he pulled away.

Rachel nodded as she threw her notebook into her bag. "Ready as I'll ever be."

As she followed her father into the hall, she glanced toward Quinn's empty room as she always did. Other than Quinn actually breaking up with her, one of the hardest parts had been watching her move out. She had begged the other girl to stay, but Quinn still left and moved into Brittany's house. Luckily, despite the fact that Quinn was keeping her distance, Brittany was in regular contact with Rachel. It helped ease her mind a little bit to know how the slaying was going because she often worried about it.

The car ride to school was mostly silent. Rachel was lost in thought, wondering if she would have any classes with Quinn and how soon she would run into her. She knew she would see her during Glee at the end of the day at the very least. They almost always had a few classes together, though, so it would probably happen much sooner than that.

Rachel had butterflies at the thought of seeing Quinn. She figured it was too much to hope that Quinn would end the silence today, but yet part of her was optimistic that it might happen.

"Promise me that you will be careful," Leroy said when he brought the car to a stop.

"I will," Rachel replied.

Ever since her father had found out the truth about Lima, he had been extra worried about everything. She tried to tell him that she could take care of herself, but a lot of things had still changed. She was only allowed out after dark if she was with a group of people and he wanted her to call every hour. She understood why he was so fearful, but it was still annoying to have to do it, and most of her friends didn't get why she was constantly calling home.

Mercedes and Kurt would often give her weird looks, but at least Tina understood what was going on. Without Tina there for her that summer, Rachel didn't know what she would have done. Between everything going on with her, and Artie breaking up with Tina for feeling like she was keeping things from him, the two had become good friends.

With a deep breath, Rachel stepped out of the car, shutting the door behind her. As she looked at the large building before her, she heard the car window roll down behind her.

"Good luck, sweetie," Leroy said.

Rachel looked over her shoulder and gave her father a sad smile. "Thanks."

She definitely felt like she was going to need all the luck she could get today.

* * *

Quinn looked out the window, watching the houses go by. She wasn't ready for school to start back and dreaded walking into that building, but she couldn't miss the first day. She would be lying if she said it hadn't seriously crossed her mind, though.

"Are you okay?"

Quinn looked at Brittany and mindlessly said, "Yeah."

"You look a little white," Brittany said, frowning. "You're not going to be sick or something, are you?"

"No," Quinn said, looking away. "I'm fine."

"If you're worried about—"

"I'm not worried about anything," Quinn said, interrupting her friend.

It was a complete lie and she knew what Brittany was going to say. She_ was_ worried about seeing Rachel because she knew it was going to make everything harder. Over the summer she could try to ignore the brunette's existence, but now she was going to come face to face with her almost every day. She had been lucky enough to only run into her a few times over the summer, but each time it happened, she felt like she couldn't breathe. She tried to ignore how much she missed Rachel, but any time she saw her, it was impossible to do so.

She had tried to forgive what Rachel had done, but she just couldn't move past being lied to. Her whole life, she was used to people lying to her, but she never thought Rachel would be one of those people. Even her best friend and family had done it numerous times. But she had trusted Rachel completely, so it was like a stab to the heart when she found out what she had done. And to hear it from Shelby made it even worse. Her first instinct was to not believe it, but one look at Rachel had told her it was true.

Moving out had been hard and when Rachel begged her to stay, she almost carried her boxes back upstairs, but she couldn't imagine having to see Rachel every day. She needed time and she needed space, which is exactly what she asked Rachel for. She was surprised Rachel managed to stay away—she really thought the brunette would find her the next day and force her to talk—but she had done as Quinn asked and kept her distance over the summer.

However, that was over now; they would see each other every day whether she wanted it or not. They were generally in several classes together and then there was Glee. She thought about quitting the club, but it was one of the things she actually looked forward to at school and she knew Brittany would never let her. So, she was just going to have to hide her emotions and act unaffected by everything; she'd had a lot of practice in the past and hoped it wouldn't be too hard to slip back into that role.

"Quinn," Brittany said, sounding worried.

"What?" Quinn asked.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Brittany asked.

Brittany didn't say anything as the question hung in the air. The other girl was always trying to get her to talk about Rachel and expressing concern for her. She knew Brittany was still in contact with Rachel—the blonde wasn't very good at being secretive—and she often wondered how much she was telling Rachel. She wasn't going to ask her to stop, though; she accepted that they were friends and it wouldn't be fair of her to ask Brittany to do that.

"You just look really sad," Brittany finally said as they neared the school.

"Well, I'm not," Quinn lied.

"Okay, but you still look like you are," Brittany insisted.

Quinn sighed. She didn't have the energy to deny what her friend was saying. She had been out most of the night, being observed by her new Watcher. The woman had come several months ago, but she was still intent on testing her in every conceivable way. Twice a week, she would observe her on patrol and give her notes on how she could improve. She hated feeling like she was under a microscope and much preferred Sue's more hands-off approach. The one good thing about her Watcher was that she didn't expect Quinn to be at school early in the morning. They trained a lot in the evening once the afterschool activities were over. It was especially nice since she often kept her out incredibly late.

As soon as they pulled into the parking lot, Quinn took a deep breath. She hesitated when the car came to a stop, not really prepared for this. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself she would be okay, the thought of seeing Rachel made her feel nauseated. After taking a few minutes to prepare herself, she got out of the car and Brittany followed. Together, they walked into the school and headed for the training room. She kept her eyes peeled, but there was thankfully no sign of the brunette she was trying to avoid. With a sigh of relief, she slipped into the training room and waited for Brittany to enter so she could close the door behind them.

"Where the hell have you been? Were you hoping I would die of boredom before you finally got here?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "You're a vampire; you're already dead. And your girlfriend was the one driving."

Santana's face softened as she looked at Brittany. "Next time, can you make sure Quinn's slow ass moves faster? I missed you."

Brittany smiled at the vampire and brought their lips together, making Quinn turn away. She was happy for her friends, but it was hard to see them so content and in love when she was still so heartbroken.

* * *

Rachel looked around the hallway; despite discreetly looking for Quinn all day, she had yet to see the blonde anywhere. She had thought about going to the training room to look for her, but she knew that would be overstepping. She'd promised to give Quinn space and barging into the training room would definitely not be giving her space. But if she happened to run into her in the hall, it wouldn't be such a big deal and could be completely accidental.

Part of her wondered if Quinn had somehow deliberately set up her class schedule so they had no classes together, but she didn't even know if that was possible; they had very little control over their schedules except for a few electives. It had to just be a coincidence, and one that Rachel didn't like. Every time she walked into a classroom, she would hold her breath, hoping Quinn would be in there. The rest of the time she would stare at the door, her heart jumping every time a new person walked in. Each time she was disappointed because it was never Quinn walking through the door.

"Hey," Tina said, smiling as she approached. "Are you coming to the cafeteria?"

Rachel sighed as she looked around; she'd thought about spending her lunch period in the choir room, but she didn't know if she wanted to be alone. She couldn't wait until Glee that afternoon; at least then she could spend her free time focusing on her performances for the club. As it was, she was left with far too much free time, and Rachel generally liked to keep busy so she didn't have so much time to think.

"Rachel?" Tina said, her smile turning into a slight frown.

"Yes, sorry," Rachel said, looking at her friend. "Yes, I'm coming to the cafeteria."

Tina nodded and asked, "Have you seen her today?"

"No," Rachel said.

There was no point in hiding the fact that she was looking around for Quinn. Even if she lied, Tina would know better. She'd been around all summer to listen to Rachel's ramblings about how she wished she could do everything differently. She actually didn't know what she would have done without the other girl. Brittany was okay to talk to, but she often didn't get her advice, and she was far too afraid to talk to Santana. She knew the vampire couldn't hurt her—at least not physically—but she could certainly make her feel worse than she already did.

She hadn't really spoken to Santana since everything happened. The vampire moved out the same day as Quinn and, according to Brittany, had moved into the training room. She wondered why Santana didn't just move into Brittany's house, but she imagined it would be hard to explain her existence if Brittany's parents ever saw her. She was supposed to be dead, after all.

"Are you ready?" Tina asked.

"Yes," Rachel said, turning around, and colliding with someone. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Quinn replied.

Rachel froze the moment she saw it was Quinn that she'd run into. She had been looking for her all day, and now they were standing face to face, completely by accident. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. After thinking a hundred ways how their first meeting could happen, this wasn't how she predicted it would happen.

"I'll see you in the cafeteria," Tina said before scurrying away.

"I-I didn't mean to run into you like that," Rachel said, her voice sounding completely unnatural to her own ears. "I apologize."

"It's fine," Quinn said, nodding as she turned and began walking away.

"Wait!" Rachel said, far more loudly than she intended, but it had the desired effect because Quinn stopped. "How are you?"

"Fine," Quinn said without any emotion.

"How's your first day of school going?" Rachel asked.

Quinn shrugged. "Okay."

"Good. That's good," Rachel said before looking down.

"I gotta go," Quinn said, turning on her heal.

Rachel sighed as she watched the blonde walk away; she wanted to ask her to wait again, but she knew she was lucky Quinn spoke to her at all. Tears came to her eyes as she watched Quinn turn the corner at the end of the hall. She wished every day that Quinn would forgive her. Even if they didn't immediately get their relationship back, she at least wanted her friend back. Quinn was the first person she knew she could really talk to and count on, and she missed having that in her life. That was the worst part about all of this; not only did she lose her girlfriend, but she also lost her best friend.

Feeling dejected, she made her way to the cafeteria. She found Tina waiting just outside the double doors with a hopeful look on her face, but the moment she looked at Rachel, her face fell.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"Terrible," Rachel replied. "She obviously still hates me."

"I don't think Quinn hates you," Tina stated. "Yes, she's angry with you and hurt, but I don't think she could ever hate you."

Rachel wanted to believe it, but it was hard to when Quinn looked at her the way she did. She may have not said more than a few words, but Quinn's eyes always gave her away, and Rachel could still see the hurt in them.

* * *

Quinn was having a hard time breathing as she walked away from Rachel. She had been so careful about not running into her all day, going so far as to walk to the opposite side of the school just so she could walk down a hallway that Rachel wasn't standing in, but then she literally ran into her. She assumed the brunette would have been at lunch and hadn't been paying attention to where she was going as she made her way to the training room, where she thought she would be safe. The three places she usually ate lunch—the cafeteria, choir room, and auditorium—were also the three places Rachel ate lunch and she didn't relish the thought of running into her. But it happened anyway and was just as bad as she thought it would be.

She'd tried to act unaffected as she looked at Rachel, but she felt like she was going to have a panic attack. She didn't want Rachel to know the effect she still had over her, so she left as fast as she could. She wished she had just kept walking the first time, but when Rachel called out, she couldn't help but stop. Part of her had been curious to know what the other girl was going to say even though she tried not to care.

"Fabray." Quinn paused at the sound of the gruff voice and turned to look at her Watcher. "Get in the training room now."

"What's going on, Coach Beiste?" she asked.

"I'll tell ya when we're in the room," Beiste said, leaving Quinn following after her.

She still didn't know how she quite felt about her new Watcher. The woman was very intimidating—and this was coming from someone who previously had Sue Sylvester as her Watcher—and she didn't always make sense. She was used to Sue saying random things, but Coach Beiste was even worse, and in the beginning, she often had no idea what the woman was talking about.

"Out!" Beiste barked at the Cheerios in the locker room.

The three girls looked startled and ran out of the room, one still in her bra. As soon as they were out of sight, her Watcher opened the door to the training room and stepped aside for her to enter. Santana was sitting on the blue training mat, which had been turned into a makeshift bed for her since she didn't have an actual bed in the room. Really, Quinn had no idea why Santana moved into the training room; it wasn't a comfortable place to stay and, as Santana loved to point out, there was no television to watch, no computer, no stereo—no form of entertainment unless she wanted to read about demons.

"Out!" Beiste demanded again.

"Where am I going to go?" Santana asked, scoffing.

"I don't care," Beiste replied.

"She really can't leave," Quinn said. "Everyone in this school knows who Santana is, and if anyone sees her, it would be impossible to explain."

Coach Beiste didn't look happy, but she never really looked happy, so it wasn't really shocking. She didn't like that Santana was staying in the training room or that so many people knew Quinn's secret, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it. Quinn was going patrolling a lot more on her own, but Santana and Brittany sometimes came along with her much to her Watcher's annoyance. Apparently the Watcher's Council wanted her to put an end to it, but Quinn wasn't going to listen to them. She was the Slayer and despite what the Council seemed to think, she wasn't going to let them control her. It was her life and she didn't need a bunch of snooty people in England trying to tell her how to live it.

"Fine, but if this gets out, I'll hit you with the dead side of a donkey," Beiste replied.

Quinn and Santana looked at each other; the vampire looked just as confused as she felt. At least when Sue threatened them, she knew exactly what she was being threatened with.

"You wanted to tell me something?" Quinn reminded her, shaking her head.

"There's somethin' coming," Beiste stated.

"Something like what?" Quinn asked.

"The Council doesn't know yet," her Watcher replied. "They want you to figure it out."

Quinn furrowed her brows. "They know nothing?"

"They know it's a powerful force that's about to rise," Beiste said, walking to the bench to pick something up. "Their intel is a little foggy, but it's apparently reliable. This was sent to the head of the Watcher's Council two days ago."

Quinn took the piece of paper and looked down at it. It was an email that had been forwarded to Coach Beiste by some guy named Price and had been sent anonymously.

"The darkness is coming. Fryial, Jouck, Yarew ," Santana said, looking over her shoulder. "What the hell does that mean?"

"You got me," Beiste replied. "It's got the Council runnin' around like a bunch of dingoes with their tails cut off."

"How do we even know it's here?" Quinn asked.

"The Council says it is," Beiste answered. "I want you to go out tonight and look for anything strange; the moment you find anything, report back to me and I'll contact the Council. They wanna keep a close eye on this."

Quinn wasn't very thrilled but nodded; she knew it was going to be a long night after an already long day.

* * *

Rachel tried to focus on what her teacher was saying, but she kept looking at the door. The teacher took roll at the beginning of class and Quinn's name was called, so Rachel knew she was in the class, but the blonde wasn't there. She knew Quinn was at school since she had only seen her an hour prior to the start of the class, so she was a little worried about her. It wasn't like Quinn to miss class unless there was something important going on, and Rachel hated not knowing what that important thing was.

When the door slowly opened toward the end of class, Rachel sat up straighter, trying to see over the head of the abnormally tall guy that was in her line of vision. Finally, it was Quinn, who was trying to sneak to an empty seat while the teacher's back was turned. Quinn was heading right for her, though Rachel suspected the blonde didn't realize where she was walking. Indeed, Quinn paused the moment they locked eyes. She looked around, presumably looking for another empty seat, but the class was almost completely full and the only other open seats were on the other side of the room. Quinn visibly sighed and walked past Rachel, sitting in the seat directly behind her.

She wanted to turn around and ask Quinn where she had been, but she continued facing forward. For the rest of the class, she was all too aware that Quinn was sitting right behind her. Her heart rate was elevated as she struggled with her desire to make sure everything was okay. She wished their teacher would turn around, making it harder to turn around without being caught, but he continued writing on the board, droning on about something Rachel hadn't heard a word of.

The bell rang shortly after Quinn came into the room and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. Being in close proximity with the other girl was too much for her right now; it was hard enough not talking to her when she wasn't two feet behind her. And when she didn't move, it really became too much for her. As soon as it rung, Rachel expected Quinn to hurry out of the room to get away from her, but she remained seated, and Rachel lost her resolve. So, she turned around and looked at the blonde, who was just beginning to pick up her bag from the floor.

"Is everything okay?" Rachel asked. "It's not like you to be late for class."

"Everything's fine," Quinn said as she stood up.

"Okay, but if something was wrong, I'd like to help," Rachel replied with some trepidation. "I know you want space and I'm willing to give you that, but if something is happening, I'll gladly be there. I won't even talk while I'm helping if that's what you want. I just don't like knowing stuff is going on and feeling helpless to do anything about it."

"Don't worry about it," Quinn said, turning.

"Okay, but if you ever need me for anything, you know where to find me," Rachel called after her.

She sighed as she watched Quinn go; even if the blonde wouldn't say anything, she knew something had to be going on. It was apparent she wasn't going to get anything out of Quinn, but there was someone else she may be able to get information out of. She doubted Brittany knew anything at the moment—it obviously just happened to cause Quinn to miss all but the last few minutes of class—so she would probably have to wait until the next day to find out what was going on. First thing tomorrow, though, she was going to find Brittany and see what information she knew.

Eventually, Rachel picked up her trigonometry book and notebook, which she hadn't made a single note in, and slipped them into her bag. As she shouldered it, she turned around to find Puck standing in the doorway.

"She's still not talking to you, huh?" he asked.

"No," Rachel said with a sigh.

"Can't say I blame her," Puck replied.

"I know, Noah," Rachel said.

Her rift with Quinn had also damaged any sort of friendship she had with Puck. He'd made it clear that he didn't like what she had done and wouldn't talk to her for several weeks after the night at the cemetery. He wouldn't say it, but she knew part of it was because she had also lied to him about it. He eventually started talking to her again, but she steered clear of talking about Quinn when she was around him because when she did, he got a disapproving look on his face, which only brought her guilt to the surface.

Without saying anything else, she walked past him and into the hall. For once, she was hoping she didn't have her next class with Quinn; she didn't think she could take being in the same room with her for a whole period. As much as she wanted to see her, she didn't really expect it to feel so nerve-wracking.

"Hey, Rachel."

She stopped at the sound of Finn's voice and looked around for the source. "Hello, Finn."

"Hey," he said, smiling. "How was your summer?"

"It was fine," Rachel said shortly.

"Cool," Finn replied. "So, there's this new kid on the football team and I heard him singing this morning after practice and I think he'd be good for Glee."

"That's nice," Rachel said as she continued to walk to her locker.

"Yeah, I'm trying to get him to come today, but I don't know if he wants to," Finn said, scratching his head.

"I should get to class," Rachel said, turning to look at him.

"Okay," Finn said, frowning slightly. "I guess I'll see you in Glee."

"Yeah," Rachel said, giving him a strained smile.

* * *

Quinn crept through the darkness, trying to avoid stepping on any of the twigs that littered the ground. She heard something beyond the crypt in front of her and didn't want to alert whatever it was to her presence. So far tonight, the only thing she found was a vampire following a young woman and another one that had just crawled out of her grave. She had dusted both with relative ease and then began making her way to Greene Cemetery, the one she was currently in.

As she peeked around the corner, she found two vampires; they were talking in hushed whispers, which was a little weird, so she tried to listen to what they were saying, but they were too far away. If she got closer, she would certainly be spotted by them since she would be completely out in the open. Instead, she quietly pulled out her crossbow from her bag and aimed it at the taller of the two. She waited until he turned slightly to get a better shot and pulled the trigger.

The vampire flinched in surprise before bursting into dust. The remaining vampire stared at the spot where the other one was standing and then began looking around. It didn't take long for him to spot Quinn, but by then she was ready for him. She gripped her stake tightly and braced herself as the vampire ran at her. When it collided with her, she used the momentum to her advantage and rolled them over until the vampire was on his back with her on top of him.

"Tell me what you two were talking about," she said as she pinned the vampire's hands above his head.

"Go to hell," the vampire spat out.

"Tell me!" Quinn yelled.

The vampire growled and began struggling with her. She tried to keep him pinned to the ground, but the longer he struggled, the more difficult it became. After a few moments, he managed to get his leg underneath her, kicking her. She flew several feet, landing on her back with a groan as the air was knocked out of her. It took her a moment to regain her senses, and when she did, the vampire was advancing. She jumped to her feet just in time for the vampire to collide with her and the two fell to the ground. Thankfully, she had held onto her stake through the fall, and as the vampire began to rise, she stuck the piece of wood into his chest. He tried to hit her, but as his fist came toward her, it disintegrated into dust.

"It was worth a try," Quinn said to herself with a sigh as she dusted off her clothes.

She had been wondering around for the past six and a half hours looking for anything out of the ordinary, but it was just the same old Lima. There seemed to be plenty of vampires out that night, but that was nothing unusual. Sighing, she looked around the cemetery, but didn't see anything else around. The sun would be up soon, so she decided to make another sweep through town and then head home. As she turned around, though, she realized the air smelled as if something was burning. When she looked around, she saw some smoke just above the tree line and it looked as if it was coming from Greene Park, which was next to the cemetery.

Quinn ran through the cemetery and made her way along the gate that surrounded most of the park. She could see something burning on the ground, but it was impossible to see what it was from her vantage point. The park appeared to be deserted and the fire seemed to be dying down. When she looked up, she realized the fence wasn't too high for her, so she scaled the iron bars and dropped to the other side. Slowing her pace, she walked to the small fire, keeping a lookout along the way.

As she got closer, she realized it wasn't just a fire and it definitely had not been an accident. It looked as if there was some sort of symbol that had been burned into the grass. She couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it appears as if it was a circle with possibly some sort of writing in the center or maybe they were just symbols of some kind. Whatever it was, she figured she had found the thing she was looking for and pulled out her phone. She didn't know how happy her Watcher would be for calling her at five in the morning, but Coach Beiste did say she wanted to be notified the moment she found anything, so she was just following orders.

She just hoped her Watcher didn't want her to keep patrolling. She barely slept the night before and she would like nothing more than to go home and crawl into bed. At most, she would only get a few hours' sleep, but it was better than nothing.

* * *

Rachel frowned as she walked down the hallway. Quinn was at her locker on the other end of the hall and Rachel was worried about her appearance. Every day she came to school, she looked more and more tired. She had dark circles under her eyes and Rachel wondered if she was sleeping at all. She'd only seen the blonde look this tired a few times and that was when something big was going on.

Brittany looked reluctant but said, "I don't know a lot. Her Watcher got some email from those people in England. They think something's going to happen, but they don't know what. Quinn's been going out every night and she keeps finding these symbols burning on the ground."

"What kind of symbol?" Rachel asked.

"I haven't seen them," Brittany said with a shrug. "I know she found one in Greene Park, Parker Cemetery, that small park at the upper side of town and that big cemetery near the place with all the animals."

"The animal shelter or the pet store?" Rachel asked.

"The shelter," Brittany replied.

Rachel frowned. "Do they know what's making them or why?"

Brittany shook her head. "No one knows. She found them still burning twice, but didn't seeing anything around."

"Do you know anything else?" Rachel asked.

"That's all," Brittany answered. "Please don't let her know you know. I wasn't supposed to say anything to anybody."

"I promise I won't say anything," Rachel answered.

"I gotta go," Brittany said. "San will worry if I don't see her before the bell rings.

Rachel nodded. "I'll see you at lunch.

Brittany gave her a wave and Rachel smiled at her. As soon as she was out the door, the brunette's smile vanished and was replaced with a frown. She wondered what these symbols could mean and who was making them. Even though she knew Quinn didn't want her help, as soon as she got home, she was going to look into it. She just hated feeling useless when she knew she could be of use. And if she did find anything, she could slip Brittany the information and then Brittany could let Quinn know without telling her where it came from.

"Didn't you already sing on Wednesday?"

Rachel looked up and smiled at Tina. "I was just talking to Brittany."

"Did you get anything out of her this time?" Tina inquired.

Rachel nodded. "She told me everything she knew."

"Is it bad?" Tina asked, furrowing her brows in concern.

Rachel sighed. "I don't know. Something is going on, but they don't know what it means yet. As I suspected, Quinn has been out every night this week. She really shouldn't be neglecting her sleep like that."

"What are you doing to do?" Tina asked.

"What makes you think I'm going to do anything?" Rachel asked, trying to sound innocent.

Tina laughed lightly. "Because I know you."

"I don't see any harm in doing a bit of research," Rachel said with a shrug.

"What are you going to do if you find anything?" Tina asked. "Quinn won't be happy if she knows you tried to help."

"She won't know," Rachel stated. "I'll simply give anything I find to Brittany. And if she does find out, she can hardly ignore the information."

She really hoped it worked, though; she didn't want Quinn angry with Brittany, but she couldn't just sit back and do nothing. It was in her nature to help people even if those people didn't necessarily want her help.

"Do you want to help me choose a song for Glee?" Tina asked. "Maybe it will make you feel better."

"No," Rachel sighed, "that's okay."

"Are you sure?" Tina asked. "Because I do need to pick one if I'm going to sing today."

Rachel smiled. "I'm sure you will make a perfectly fine choice."

She appreciated that her friend was trying to cheer her up, but she wanted to stay focused on what Brittany had told her. Not wanting to forget anything, she pulled her notebook out of her bag and grabbed a pen. She began writing down everything the other girl told her so she didn't forget anything. Not that she had told her a lot, but she still wanted to make sure she got everything down. If she was going to help, she needed all the details she could get. It would be more helpful if she knew what these symbols looked like, but if Brittany didn't know, she wasn't going to be able to find out since she couldn't just go up to Quinn and ask her.

She sighed. She hated this; she hated that she _couldn't_ just go up to Quinn and ask her. Everything was finally how she'd always wanted it to be. She finally had someone in her life that she loved, who loved her back, and she messed it up. It had been five months since everything blew up in her face and she'd cried herself to sleep every night. She needed to make everything better and part of her hoped helping Quinn with this would make things just a little bit better.

* * *

Quinn's eyes blurred as she stared at the book in front of her. Its pages were yellowing and it had a musty smell that Quinn had come to associate with doing research. Because of that, she also associated the scent with Rachel. Researching was never fun, but at least when Rachel was around, it wasn't quite so bad. Some of this book was even in Latin, which Rachel was starting to learn. Now, she had to type it into a search engine, which greatly slowed her progress.

"What the hell's an athame?" Santana asked, frowning at the book she was looking at.

"It's that double-edged knife I use for spells," Brittany replied.

"Oh," Santana said. "Never mind."

"Why would anyone kill a kitten," Brittany said with a pout, flipping the page.

"Just be thankful there's no picture," Quinn commented.

Her book was full of illustrations and none of them were very pleasant to look at. As she turned the page from a particularly graphic one, she wondered if they would ever find anything. When she wasn't patrolling or training, she was pouring over books, looking for anything that could possibly be related to what she had been finding. This was the fourth day of researching and they knew nothing more than when they began.

The Council seemed particularly interested in what was going on, but Quinn didn't know why, and if Beiste knew, she wasn't saying. Quinn didn't like being kept in the dark, but she was still following orders; it was easier to just go along with it than fight with them.

"You know who's good at this sort of thing," Santana said.

"No," Quinn instantly replied.

"Yes, you do," Santana argued.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Yes, and I'm saying no to it."

"Why not?" Santana asked.

"You know why," Quinn said, trying to sound detached.

"Fine, she was a bitch and lied to you," Santana stated. "So what? People lie all the time."

Quinn's jaw clenched. "I don't want to talk about this.

"Why?" Santana asked. "Maybe you need to so you'll get over it."

San," Brittany said with a hint of warning in her voice.

"What?" she asked, looking at her girlfriend. "It happened, like a year ago and she's still moping around about it."

"Five months," Quinn corrected.

"Whatever." Santana rolled her eyes. "The point is you need to get over it. You know she's better at this shit than the rest of us. Are you really going to let something bad happen just because of your damn ego?"

"Nothing is going to happen," Quinn replied. "I'll find it and I'll stop it. I don't need her help."

"Bu—"

"Santana," Brittany said, interrupting the vampire. "Stop."

"Fine, if she wants to keep being stupid—whatever," Santana said, throwing her hands up in the air.

Quinn knew Santana was right about Rachel being better at this than they were, but she couldn't ask her. It was bad enough having two classes and Glee with her. She didn't want to be locked in a room with her for hours when she didn't need to be. Plus, they didn't actually know if anything bad was coming. She just had one message from some unknown person. Yes, the burning symbols were strange, but it wasn't the first weird thing to happen in Lima and she was certain it wouldn't be the last.

Quinn stood and walked across the room; she rubbed her eyes and thought about taking a break since she had been staring at a book for three straight hours. She was feeling antsy and felt like she needed to take a walk—or possibly find something to take out her frustration on. Since there weren't any vampires around to pummel—not one she could hit without getting in trouble, anyway—she walked over to the punching bag. She quickly wrapped her hands and then took her first swing. She hit the bag a couple more times and, suddenly, Brittany was at her side with a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay?" Brittany asked.

"Fine," Quinn said as she threw a punch.

"Don't listen to Santana," Brittany said, watching Quinn's every move.

"I never do," Quinn replied.

"But I think she's kind of right," Brittany said, looking reluctant to voice her opinion. "Rachel could help."

"I know," Quinn admitted. "But it hurts to be in the same room with her. I know she's sorry, but I can't forgive her. Maybe something will change later, but I don't know how to forgive what she did. I trusted her with everything and she lied to me. She was the one person I didn't think would do that to me and then she did."

Brittany looked like she wanted to cry. She was the one person who seemed to understand; Santana just kept telling her to get over it, Puck had suggested getting fake IDs and sneaking into strip club, Tina was far too close with Rachel now to talk to her about it, and she couldn't tell anyone else what had happened to talk to them about it.

"I'm sorry you're still hurting," Brittany said. "But it's okay; you don't have to get over it like San says. You're not being stupid. You know San isn't good with feelings and she won't admit it, but she'd be hurt if it happened to her."

"Do—" Quinn closed her mouth.

"What?" Brittany asked.

Quinn sighed and hit the punching bag again. "Do you really think Rachel's sorry?"

"Yes," Brittany replied without hesitating. "And I know it's bad that she did it, but she really thought she was doing the right thing. She thought you might get hurt if you knew. She was going to tell you after you killed Shelby, but then you found out before that happened."

Quinn hit the punching bag a few more times before saying, "We should get back to work."

* * *

Rachel tightly gripped the stake in her hand as she walked along the sidewalk. She walked slowly, keeping an eye out for not only vampires, but also for Quinn. She didn't want the other girl to see her out here because she knew Quinn wouldn't be happy about it. She wouldn't be out here, but she'd tried calling Brittany numerous times, only to get her voicemail every time and her texts were left unanswered.

After a bit of research, she came upon a ritual that sounded like the one going on in Lima right now. The ritual had to be performed on five consecutive nights, which meant tonight would be the final night. It wasn't quite clear what was going to happen if the fifth part of the ritual was complete, but she knew it was going to start something and she knew it had to be something bad. She tried to tell Brittany that to let Quinn know the urgency of the situation, but she was unable to do so. She even tried going to Brittany house and the training room, but both were empty when she got there.

She had faith that Quinn would stop whoever—or whatever—was going it, but if she was unsuccessful, Rachel thought maybe she could. She knew it was a longshot—the chances of her finding it over Quinn was probably fairly low—but she had to try. She was just afraid she was going to run into the Slayer. She didn't really have a reason for being out there and she knew Quinn would be smart enough to realize that Brittany told her everything.

As she walked down the sidewalk, she began smelling smoke. Her head whipped around as she looked for the source of them smell, but she couldn't tell where it was coming from. She continued looking around until she finally spotted some smoke just above the trees about a block away. She began running toward the source, hoping to get there before the ritual was complete. It looked like the smoke was coming from the nearby cemetery, so she rounded the corner at the end of the sidewalk. When she ran around the corner, though,, she hit something solid and fell back, landing on her butt. She looked up and found herself looking at the one person she hoped she wouldn't run into.

"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked.

"I—thought I would take a walk," Rachel lied.

"At night?" Quinn asked.

"Yes," Rachel replied. "I can take care of myself." Rachel cleared her throat. "Now if we don't hurry, we might be too late."

"Too late for what?" Quinn asked. "I thought you were just taking a walk."

Rachel huffed as she stood. "I'll explain later. Right now, we have to stop that before it finishes."

Quinn sighed. "Brittany told you everything, didn't she?"

"C'mon," Rachel said, running off before Quinn could ask her any more questions.

She could hear Quinn's footsteps behind her and was glad the blonde was following; even though she was going to try, she couldn't imagine fighting anything on her own. And when she saw the demon next to the small fire, she was even more thankful. The horned demon was several feet taller than her and Rachel guess it weighed three times as much. She knew she never would have stood a chance against it.

"What are you waiting for?" Rachel asked after they had both stared at the demon for far too long. "If you don't kill it before it completes the ritual, something bad is going to come."

Quinn frowned.. "How do you know?"

"I—may have done a bit of research," Rachel said, averting her eyes. "This is the fifth symbol, yes?"

"Yes," Quinn replied.

"Well, this is the last one," Rachel stated. "I don't know what the ritual is for, but I can guarantee it is for nothing good."

Quinn looked at the demon and then looked at her again before reaching down and rummaging through the duffle bag she'd dropped on the ground. She pulled out a sword and handed another, slightly shorter one to Rachel. She then put a dagger into her waistband and stood up.

"Stay here," Quinn demanded.

Rachel didn't know why she needed the sword if she was being instructed to stay there, but she was glad she had it since she doubted her stake would do anything against a demon of that size. With one last glance in Rachel's direction, Quinn began running toward the demon. Rachel hated staying back, but she did as Quinn instructed.

Quinn swung the sword, lashing the demon across the back, but it didn't seem to have much effect. It did stop chanting, though, and the flames began to lower. Rachel flinched when it grabbed Quinn by the neck, throwing her into a headstone. When Quinn didn't immediately get up, she took a few steps forward, wanting to run over and help her. Eventually, the blonde began to stand and Rachel stepped back. She hated watching from afar; it made her feel completely helpless.

She continued to stand there and watch Quinn fight the demon. The creature may be large, but Quinn seemed to be using that to her advantage. It was a lot slower than Quinn was and she successfully dodged its punches, getting in several strikes with the sword in the process. As it lumbered toward Quinn, Rachel took another step forward when it looked like Quinn wasn't going to move. However, at the last moment, Quinn dodged under its legs and scrambled to her feet. Before the demon could turn, Quinn stabbed the tip of the sword into the back of its neck. It swayed on the spot for a few moments before falling forward with a crash as it landed on a headstone, knocking it to the ground.

As Quinn pulled the sword out of the demon, Rachel walked toward her. The blonde wasn't looking at her, but Rachel's eyes never strayed from Quinn.

"It looks like you did it," Rachel commented.

"Yeah," Quinn said, still looking down at the demon.

"The fire's gone," Rachel said, looking at the spot, which didn't leave any marks despite a fairly impressive fire being there only minutes before. "I think that means you must have stopped the ritual in time."

"Hopefully," Quinn replied.

Rachel nodded. "I guess I should walk home. I'll see you in class Monday."

"Wait," Quinn called out after Rachel turned to leave. "I'll drive you; you shouldn't be out here alone."

Rachel smiled to herself. "Thank you; I appreciate the offer."

* * *

When Quinn walked into school on Monday, she walked down the hall in search of Rachel. She may not have forgiven her, but she felt like she needed to thank her. While Rachel should never have been out there Friday night, she _was_ trying to help. She also told Quinn to find her if she wanted the research she had done, which the Council wanted, so Quinn had to get it.

Rachel wasn't by her locker when Quinn passed by, so she turned to go to the choir room. Before she got to the room, she heard Rachel's voice drifting down the hallway and knew she was inside. She didn't know why the brunette was rehearsing since they didn't have their Glee assignment for the week, but she guessed Rachel didn't really need a reason

"Hey, you're in the Glee Club, right?"

Quinn stopped and turned to see who was speaking to her. It was a guy she had never seen before and she would have definitely remembered since he had the biggest mouth she had ever seen.

"Yes," she finally replied after scrutinizing him a bit.

"I'm Sam," he said with a wide smile. "Sam Evans. My family just moved here."

"Quinn," she replied.

Sam had that look in his eyes that she knew all too well—he liked her. She had to admit he was good looking with his blonde hair—though he could definitely use a different style—and greenish colored eyes, but he obviously didn't stand a chance. She just hoped he heard about her past relationship with Rachel and got the hint before he inevitably asked her out and she had to turn him down.

"I should go," Quinn said, cutting him off before he could say anything else.

"It was nice meeting you," Sam said, giving her another crooked smile.

Quinn gave him a faint smile before walking away; Rachel was still singing in the choir room, so she paused by the door and watched her. Ever since she had met Rachel, the brunette mesmerized her when she sang. It wasn't just her voice, which was amazing, but also the emotion on her face. When Rachel sang, she could always see emotion the brunette was feeling; it was always written all over her face. Even when she thought she hated Rachel—or at least tried to hate her—Quinn was drawn in every time Rachel sang.

When the song ended, Rachel turned around and began walking toward the CD player, but stopped when she saw Quinn in the doorway. Quinn could see that she looked nervous and slightly surprised, but then she stood up straighter and continued walking toward the CD player just as the next song began to play.

"I assume you're here for my research," Rachel said as she stopped the music.

"Yeah," Quinn replied.

Rachel nodded and walked to her bag, which was sitting on one of the seats. Quinn watched as she rummaged through it, pulling out a black folder, and slipping the CD into one of the front pockets. Rachel turned around and walked toward Quinn, handing the folder to her without saying a word.

"Thanks," Quinn said, and Rachel nodded. "Not just for this, but for Friday. I appreciate that you tried to help; you shouldn't have been out there, though."

"I know," Rachel said, looking down. "I just hate sitting at home. It's hard knowing the things that go on in Lima and not being able to do anything about them."

"I know, but you could have been hurt, and I—" Quinn clamped her mouth shut.

She looked away from Rachel when the brunette looked at her, clearly curious to know what she was going to say.

"I should go," Quinn finally said after some awkward silence.

Rachel nodded again. "I will see you in class."

Without another word, Quinn turned and walked away, feeling Rachel's eyes on her until she turned the corner. When she turned the corner she stopped and leaned back against the row of lockers, resting her head against the hard metal. She couldn't believe she almost told Rachel that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if anything happened to her. She was just glad she caught herself before she said it aloud. She was supposed to be staying detached when it came to Rachel, not letting her know how much she still loved her.

* * *

"Sir, I—"

"He failed."

The girl shifted and averted her eyes. "Yes."

The man in front of her sighed and put his hands behind his back. "He assured me he could do it."

She hated to be the one to bring him the bad news, but since the demon was dead, she was the only one to do it. It wasn't that she thought he would kill her—he hated getting his hands dirty and she knew she was too invaluable—but he could still cause some fairly unpleasant things when he was angered.

"Very well," he finally said after a few tense moments. "I should have known better than to hire a contractor to do it. I won't make the same mistake again."

She released the breath she was holding and followed her boss as he began walking out of the room. She was surprised that he didn't seem angry, but she counted her blessings.

She wondered what he was planning, but didn't dare ask. She knew it was something big, though, if he was doing it. He generally remained low key, so to risk exposing himself, it had to be important to him. He liked to remain behind the scenes and work his magic from there, switching towns often to remain undiscovered.

They had only been in Lima for a little over a year; before that they were in a town in southern California. That's where she joined him. Since then, she had learned very little about him. He was currently going by the name Dustin Goolsby, but she knew it wasn't his real name since he was going by Alexander Castle in the last town. Mostly, she just did as requested and tried to lay low. It wasn't the ideal situation, but it was better than living on the streets, often crashing in a crack house, which is exactly what she was doing when her boss came across her.

"Come," Dustin said as he breezed into his den.

She had only been in the room a few times since they came to Lima; she was thankful he didn't ask her to enter it a lot because the place scared her. There were dead things in bottles, which were sitting on the shelves that lined the room and the room had a weird odor to it. She didn't know what most of the things in the room were and she didn't want to know. She preferred to stay detached because if she started questioning things, she knew she wouldn't like the answer.

"I need you to go into town and get these things," he said, handing her a list.

"Okay," she said as she looked over the piece of paper.

"Be discreet," he demanded. "We don't need the Slayer knowing we are here."

She nodded; she didn't know what this 'Slayer' was that he kept talking about, but he seemed convinced that she was going to come after him if she knew he was in town.

"I'll make sure no one sees me," she replied.

"Good," he said, turning his back to her. "I don't want her coming along and ruining my plans. She already put a temporary hold on them; I won't let that happen again."

She really wondered what his obsession with this girl was, but she didn't ask. She never asked. She knew her boss was a very powerful, dangerous man, but the longer she could stay in the dark about everything, the better. Right now, he was putting a roof over her head and feeding her, and as long as he did that, she would continue to do his bidding. She knew one day they would leave Lima, and when that time came, she would try not to look back at the carnage he'd inevitably leave behind.

* * *

**Well, hopefully the wait was worth it. This will be updated every three weeks on Tuesdays, and as with all my stories, you can find the update schedule on my tumblr.**

**Reviews are greatly appreciated.**


	2. Unknown

**Chapter 2 – Unknown**

"There you are," Santana said the moment Quinn walked into the training room. "You're the damn Slayer; shouldn't you be able to actually be somewhere on time? What are you going to do when the world's ending again? Woops, sorry you're all dead because I can't get my ass to be on time!"

Quinn stared at Santana for a moment and then shook her head, walking the rest of the way into the room. "I'm fairly certain I would be on time for an apocalypse, but I'm not quite as concerned about bringing you blood."

"Well, you should be," Santana replied.

"You really need to get out more," Quinn stated.

"That big bright thing in the sky called the sun makes it a little hard," Santana replied.

"Listen, Santana, I don't know why you've been in such a bad mood, but can you stop taking it out on me?" Quinn asked, getting frustrated. "I didn't make you move in here; you could have stayed at Rachel's."

"Yeah and watch her mope all day and want to talk about her feelings or whatever." Santana scoffed. "No way in hell. Seeing your sad ass is bad enough, but at least you don't wanna talk about it."

"Here," Quinn said, rolling her eyes.

"Is it warm?" Santana asked.

"Just take the damn bag!" Quinn said, not thrilled with the idea of holding a container of blood.

Santana snatched it out of her hand and looked in the bag, reaching in. "It's cold."

"So heat it up," Quinn retorted.

"There's no microwave," Santana replied.

"Not my problem," Quinn snapped.

"Someone's got their panties in a twist," Santana remarked.

Quinn rolled her eyes again. "Me? You're the one who thinks I'm your maid or something. I have bigger things to worry about than if you're happy with your food."

"Yeah, because there's so much going on right now," Santana replied. "Last I checked you stopped whatever demon was going around and casting those spells. Tell me—what else is so important at the moment?"

Quinn narrowed her eyes; she hated how flippant Santana was about her Slaying. Sure, there wasn't a lot going on at the moment—just the usual vampires—but she still didn't like fetching things for the vampire. She didn't understand why she couldn't ask Brittany to do it since she was her girlfriend, but she expected Quinn to bring her blood every morning since the butcher shop was always closed when Santana could go out. So, Quinn had to stop there first thing in the morning and she was getting tired of it. She would suggest Santana get a small fridge to put it in, but she knew Santana didn't have any money and it's not like Quinn could afford it, either. Without her parents to support her, she really needed to get a job, but with school and Slaying, she just didn't have the time or the energy.

"Everything," Quinn finally said.

"I wonder if I can sneak down to Sue's office and use her microwave," Santana said, looking down at the bag. "Since someone's being a bitch and won't do it for me."

"You never asked me to," Quinn pointed out. "You just demand everything."

"Whatever," Santana said, heading toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Quinn asked, grabbing the vampire's arm, and spinning her around.

"I told you, I'm going to Sylvester's office," Santana replied, stepping closer to Quinn.

"You can't," Quinn stated.

Santana's eyebrow rose. "Watch me."

"If anyone sees you—"

"What?" Santana interrupted. "What could possibly happen? They'll think they're going crazy and I can have a bit of fun." Santana shrugged. "No harm."

"Do it and I'll tell Brittany," Quinn said, knowing it would be the only thing that could dissuade Santana from doing it.

"I hate you," Santana stated.

"Good," Quinn responded with a roll of her eyes.

The door opened and Quinn's Watcher, Coach Beiste, walked into the room. Santana and Quinn were practically nose to nose and the older woman looked between them. Quinn narrowed her eyes at Santana, who just stared back.

"Don't mind me," Beiste said, closing the door behind her. "We have a situation."

"What kind of situation," Quinn asked.

"A groundskeeper found a skeleton in Reed Cemetery," Beiste replied. "He called the cops and now they're all over it, but I want you to find out what you can. Don't know if it's natural or supernatural, but we're gonna find out. And don't forget yer training after class. Council wants you all nice and ready for the test."

Quinn head whipped toward her Watcher. "Test?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Beiste asked. "The Council's coming next month; they want to see how you're progressing."

"Have fun," Santana said, grinning evilly at her.

"No use whinin' about it," Beiste remarked. "If the Council decides to come, they're gonna come."

Quinn sighed; she didn't want the Council around to judge her and pick apart every little thing she did. She was the Slayer, and if they didn't like how she did things, there was nothing they could do about it. Having a Watcher was one thing—on occasion, they were useful and they did help with training—but she didn't need some guys across the world trying to look over her shoulder.

* * *

"I think there might be an old fridge in our basement," Brittany said, walking down the hall next to Quinn. "I can see if my parents will let me have it. I don't even know if it works or if we still have it."

"Will you please look when you get home?" Quinn begged. "Santana's driving me nuts—more so than usual."

"She's just lonely here," Brittany replied. "When she was at Rachel's, there were always people around and she could sneak up to the living room to watch TV."

"That's not my fault," Quinn stated. "She's the one who chose to move."

"She didn't want to be stuck in the middle," Brittany explained. "She knew you were hurting and she didn't want to make it worse by staying at Rachel's."

Quinn scoffed. "Like she cares."

"She does," Brittany argued. "She won't ever say anything, but she was sad when you two broke up, and she's mad at Rachel for hurting you. San even told me that she would bite Rachel if she could."

"That's," Quinn frowned, "nice, I guess."

"She just doesn't know how to say nice things to people," Brittany replied. "You know how she is; she doesn't want people to think she's not strong even though I told her you won't think that. Sometimes she just won't listen to me." Brittany shrugged. "If we don't have a fridge, I can start running to get her food after Cheerios practice. I might be late for first period, but it's just chemistry and I don't really need to know that stuff. I mean, it's a lot like witchcraft and I already know how to do that."

"It's okay," Quinn said, sighing. "I don't want you to get in trouble with your teacher."

"Are you sure?" Brittany asked.

"I'm sure," Quinn replied.

Quinn saw Rachel just down the hall and tried not to stare at her. As much as she tried to avoid her the first day, she realized it wasn't going to be feasible to keep doing it. They had two classes together, so she was going to see her whether she wanted to or not. Especially since Rachel sat next to her in their chemistry 2 class. The teacher had assigned lab partners by last name, but not the way most teachers did. Instead of putting people next to each other, he considered the tables as two rows and there were enough people between Berry and Fabray that they ended up at the same table.

"Have you talked to her yet?" Brittany asked.

"Who?" Quinn asked, but she knew exactly who Brittany was talking about.

"Rachel," Brittany replied with a touch of exasperation in her voice.

Quinn didn't say anything as the brunette passed by. She tried not to glance back at her, but she failed, and found herself locking eyes with Rachel when the other girl also looked back. Quinn quickly averted her eyes, nearly running into one of the football players since she wasn't paying attention to where she was going.

"No," she said, feeling her cheeks turning red.

Brittany frowned and Quinn waited for her to say something, but she didn't. She knew her friend wanted her to forgive Rachel—that's just the type of person Brittany was—but it was easier said than done. Quinn wished she could forgive the brunette, but it just wasn't that simple. She had a hard time trusting people as it was, and after feeling so betrayed, she didn't feel like she could ever go back to the way things were. What Rachel did would always be in the back of her mind even if she wished it could just go away.

"Are you going to say anything?" Quinn finally asked after she couldn't take Brittany's silence any longer.

"Like what?" Brittany asked, shrugging.

"I know you want to say something," Quinn remarked.

Brittany sighed. "I just don't understand why you won't talk to her. What's the harm? You were friends, right? I know she hurt you, but I don't understand why you can't at least be friends again."

"It's just—complicated," Quinn said, shaking her head.

The thought of being friends with Rachel—just friends—made her instantly feel sick to her stomach. Yes, she missed having Rachel as a friend, but there was no way she could go back to that. Not when her feelings were still so strong for the other girl.

"Who's that?" Brittany asked.

"What?" Quinn asked.

"That guy's waving at you," Brittany stated, pointing down the hall.

Quinn looked up to find the kid with the big mouth waving at her. She reluctantly waved back and—if it was at all possible—his smile grew even bigger.

"Some new kid," Quinn replied. "I think he said his name is Sam."

"I think he likes you," Brittany said.

"Well, he can learn that it's never going to happen," Quinn retorted. "He is not my type."

"Plus, you're still in love with Rachel," Brittany stated.

Quinn wanted to argue that point, but she wasn't going to lie to her friend. She also wasn't going to admit that Brittany was right.

"He's thinking of joining the Glee Club," Quinn commented.

"We do need another person if we want to compete at Sectionals this year," Brittany replied.

No one had joined Glee since Logan had died, so they were down one member. Quinn really didn't care whether or not Sam joined; she just hoped he didn't join for her because he would quickly be disappointed. He clearly hadn't got the memo yet that she was gay, and if he had, he was completely ignoring it because this wasn't the first time she found him waving at her. If he was going to ask her out, she hoped he did it soon, so she could dash any hopes he had of being her boyfriend.

* * *

Rachel walked down the hallway, intent on going to the choir room. They had their Glee assignment for the week and she was throwing herself into it, hoping to get her mind off Quinn. School was one big reminder that the blonde was still not talking to her and it was making Rachel a little crazy. At least during the summer she could forget about her sometimes, but while she was at school, she constantly saw Quinn in the hall or in class or after school in the choir room.

When she rounded the corner, she actually passed by Quinn and tried not to stare at her. It was hard, but she kept her eyes straight ahead, fighting the urge to look back. She wondered if Quinn had that same problem or if it was easy for the blonde to ignore her. It certainly seemed easy for Quinn and Rachel wondered if the other girl even still had feelings for her or if they had all been replaced with hate. It made her ill just thinking about it.

After walking past Quinn, she also passed by a blonde guy in a letterman jack who she'd never seen before. She frowned and followed his gaze, noticing that he was staring at Quinn with that look in his eyes that she knew too well. It wasn't a look that was ever directed at her, but she'd seen it many times when guys were looking at Quinn. She had no idea who this boy was, but she frowned, instantly not liking him.

"Rach!"

She stopped and turned around to find Brittany jogging down the hall. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Quinn watching her friend with furrowed brows, probably wondering why Brittany was calling Rachel's name, just like the brunette was wondering.

"Is everything okay, Brittany?" Rachel asked.

"Are you busy?" Brittany asked.

"I was on my way to the choir room to—"

"Great," Brittany said, grabbing her hand. "We can talk in there."

Brittany pulled her down the hall and Rachel frowned. "Brittany, my legs aren't nearly as long as yours."

"Sorry," Brittany said, slowing down their pace.

"Is something wrong?" Rachel asked as they neared. "Is it Quinn? Is something going on?"

"Yeah, but that's not what it's about," Brittany answered.

When Brittany pulled her into the choir room, she closed the door behind them and walked to the piano bench, motioning for Rachel to take a seat.

"I would rather stand," Rachel said.

Brittany shrugged and sat down herself. "I need you to help me."

"Help you with what?" Rachel asked.

"I can't say yet," Brittany said, looking away.

"Well, I would love to help you if you need it, but I need to know what I'm agreeing to first," Rachel replied.

"It's nothing bad, I promise," Brittany said. "I just don't want anyone to know yet."

Rachel crossed her arms and studied the blonde; she didn't think Brittany would be up to no good—it wasn't in her nature to harm anyone—but she still wanted to know what it was before she agreed to it. Still, maybe she could use this to her advantage. Maybe she could make a deal with Brittany.

"I have a proposition," Rachel stated. "I'll agree to help you with whatever it is you need help with, no questions asked, if you keep me updated on Quinn. I want to know everything you know, especially what she's facing as a Slayer. I worry about her and I don't like being in the dark because it only makes me worry more."

"Okay," Brittany said with a shrug.

Rachel nodded. "Okay."

"Someone found a skeleton in one of the cemeteries last night," Brittany stated. "Quinn's supposed to figure out what's going on before the police do. That's all I know right now."

"A skeleton?" Rachel repeated. "Do you know which cemetery? There are quite a few in Lima, after all."

"San didn't say," Brittany replied.

"I wonder if the newspaper has anything about it," Rachel commented. "I should probably check on that."

She was already planning to go to the library the moment she and Brittany were done speaking. As much as she wanted to rehearse and forget about all of this, her desire to help Quinn was more powerful. Surely there would be something about it in the Lima News if the police were involved.

"I'll let you know when I need your help," Brittany said, standing up. "I just need a day or two to find the spell and get the stuff for it."

"Spell?" Rachel asked. "We're doing a spell? Am I really the right person for this?"

"You're the only one that can help me," Brittany said, giving her a hopeful look. "I don't want Quinn or San to know in case it doesn't work."

"What about your mom?" Rachel asked.

"She's out of town, and even if she wasn't, I couldn't really explain it to her," Brittany replied. "You're still going to help me, right?"

"I told you I would help and I won't go back on my word," Rachel said.

Brittany smiled. "Thanks. I should probably go. San worries when I'm late."

"Wait," Rachel called out when Brittany began walking away. "Who's—who's the blonde guy in the hallway who was staring at Quinn?"

"Do you mean Sam?" Brittany asked. "He's new here. I think he likes Quinn."

Rachel hummed. "Yes, I did get that impression from him."

"Don't worry, Rach," Brittany stated. "Quinn still loves you."

Rachel's breathing hitched. "I'm not so sure about that."

"I am," Brittany stated before turning and leaving the room.

* * *

Quinn crept through the cemetery as quietly as possible, looking around for the sound she kept hearing. She knew she wasn't alone, but she couldn't seem to find what had made the twig snap. It was possible that it was just a stray dog or something, but being Lima, it was also possible that it was some demon or vampire. It didn't help that she also felt like she was being followed; she had the feeling of being watched, but every time she looked around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She was convinced something was there, though, and she wasn't going to let it sneak up on her and get the upper hand.

She heard a twig snap again and it sounded as if it was coming from the other side of the only crypt in the graveyard, so she quickly ran up to it, not wanting the creature to get away. However, when she walked around to the other side, there was nothing there. She stopped and looked around, slightly perplexed. That is until she heard laughing

"Dammit, Santana!" Quinn said, continuing to look around. "I know it's you!"

"It took you long enough," Santana said, coming up behind her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Quinn asked.

Santana shrugged. "I was bored."

"So you decided to follow me around?" Quinn asked, rolling her eyes.

"What else is there to do in this town?" Santana asked. "It's not like I can go watch a movie or anything. Someone might see me, remember?"

"Why aren't you with Brittany?" Quinn asked.

"She said she was busy tonight," Santana said, shrugging her shoulders again.

"Busy doing what?" Quinn asked.

"I didn't ask," Santana replied.

"Really?" Quinn asked, suspiciously.

"Okay, I did, but she didn't say," Santana replied. "Whatever."

That sounded more like it to Quinn; she knew Santana well enough to know that if Brittany was too busy for her, she would most definitely ask what she was doing. What was surprising was that Brittany didn't say; she wasn't known for being a secretive person and it made her wonder what the blonde could possibly be up to.

"She didn't say anything?" Quinn asked.

Santana rolled her eyes. "What did I just say? No wonder I could follow you around for so long; you have really bad hearing."

"Yeah, thanks for doing that," Quinn sarcastically said. "I wasted the last fifteen minutes tracking you when I could have been looking for whatever the hell I'm looking for." She looked around the cemetery. "I don't think there's anything here."

"What makes you think that?" Santana asked. "The complete lack of anything around."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Go home."

"I don't have a home," Santana replied. "I don't even have a bed; I have a really shit mat on the floor."

"So move," Quinn said, turning, and walking away from the vampire.

"To where?" Santana asked.

"Move into a crypt like most vampires," Quinn replied.

"Eww," Santana said, scrunching her face up. "Yeah, I imagine the concrete would be so much more comfortable than a mat on the floor. Genius idea there, Fabray. At least the school has a shower."

"Can you shut up about it?" Quinn asked. "I told you before that you could have stayed at Rachel's. Move back there if you're so unhappy."

"And I told you I don't want to hear her sappy declarations of love every damn day," Santana retorted. "I think I would have to puke."

Quinn shook her head and began walking toward the sidewalk. There was another graveyard nearby, so she was going to check it out before moving on to a different part of town. She had already been to the one the skeleton was found at, but there was nothing around for her to go on. There was still police tape around, but any evidence was long gone. She knew her only hope now was to run into whatever did it or find another skeleton before anyone else did; maybe that way she would find some clues to go on and be able to figure out what was going on, if anything.

"Where are you going?" Santana asked.

"Over there," Quinn said, pointing across the street.

"Why?" Santana asked.

Quinn stopped and sighed. "Because I need to check if there's anything over there."

She hated when Santana went patrolling with her; she liked to question everything Quinn did and it drove her crazy. Rachel would usually follow along without question, and she much preferred it. It was hard to sneak up on anyone with Santana in tow, she was far too loud and anything would hear them coming from a mile away. Of course, Santana wasn't really the type of person—or vampire—to sneak up on something. She was more the type to run in, consequences be damned.

When they walked into the cemetery, it appeared to be deserted. Still, she tried to be quiet as she crept between the rows of headstones. Santana still wasn't attempting to be stealthy, but Quinn just tried to ignore her. Pausing, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked, there was nothing.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Santana asked.

"I thought I saw something near the bushes," Quinn said, frowning.

"There," the vampire said, pointing slightly further along the edge of the graveyard.

Together, they ran over to the part where the trees met the cemetery. Santana walked into the trees while Quinn checked around the bushes. She didn't even know what she saw, but she definitely saw something.

"Do you see anything?" Quinn asked.

"Not a damn thing," Santana said, walking out from between two trees.

Quinn looked around with a frown on her face. "I didn't imagine seeing something, right?"

"No," Santana replied. "I definitely saw something."

Quinn didn't know where or what it was, but she was starting to think whatever happened the night before _was_ supernatural. Of course, this being Lima, Quinn knew it could very well be something that wasn't even related to the skeleton being found.

* * *

Santana quickly ducked in her seat and turned off her headlights, not wanting Brittany to see her. After borrowing Quinn's car—okay, stealing since she didn't know it was gone—she began following her girlfriend. She wanted to feel guilty, she really did, but Brittany was acting weird and she wanted to know what was going on. She asked and didn't get any answers, so she decided to do the one thing she knew would work—stalk her.

Since Brittany blew her off Sunday night for whatever was now apparently more important than her, her girlfriend just hadn't been the same. Santana was worried that she'd done something to get in trouble or maybe that she was just tired of having a vampire for a girlfriend and didn't want to hurt her feelings. If that was the case, Santana wished she would just get it over it. As much as it would hurt, she wouldn't really be able to blame Brittany. When she was alive, she couldn't take Brittany out as a couple because she was too damn scared that someone would realize they were more than just friends, and now that she got the fuck over that, she couldn't take her out because someone might recognize her.

Which is exactly what she hoped Brittany wouldn't do right now. She had to know Quinn's car, but it was the only one Santana could easily get. She slipped Quinn's keys out of her bag when she wasn't looking and then said something about taking a walk, so she could get out of the training room. She thought it would take a while to find Brittany, but she actually found her coming out of her house as she pulled up. Now, she was just waiting for her to go wherever she was going to go.

She peeked over the top of the door and watched as Brittany got in her car. The moment she started the engine, Santana sat up, ready to follow her. At first, she couldn't tell where Brittany was going; she thought maybe she was going into town, but then she turned and began heading for the more residential part of town. She knew there were several people that lived that way—Puck, Mike, Tina, and Rachel—and Santana wondered if she was going to see any of them. She gripped the wheel tighter at the thought of Brittany going to see Puck; he knew she was alive, but she knew that wouldn't stop him from screwing Brittany.

"Don't turn," Santana mumbled to herself.

When Brittany passed by the turn to Puck's road, Santana breathed a sigh of relief. Metaphorically, anyway. Mike's road was next and Santana narrowed her eyes at the thought. Mike was a nice guy and all—one of the only few on the football team who was—but if he was seeing Brittany, she was going to have to kill him. Spell or no spell, she would rip out his throat and enjoy the look on his face when he realized who did it. She could just imagine Brittany and Mike staying late for some stupid assignment for Glee. They were both dancers, after all, and she knew from experience that Brittany tended to get horny after a particularly active dance session.

Brittany passed by the road, though, and Santana's mind immediately went to Tina. Sure, she'd dated Artie, but Quinn had dated Finnept and then she learned how much better lady kisses could be. She knew Rachel and Tina had been spending a lot of time together, and maybe Rachel got tired of waiting for Quinn to get over her shit.

But Brittany's car continued going past the turn to Tina's house, and Santana backed off, realizing she had sped up and was nearly on her bumper. Santana knew now that Brittany was probably going to Rachel's house, but there was no way she was cheating on her with Berry—right? Who could possible cheat on her with Berry? Santana had to admit that she could be kinda hot sometimes and she could totally see what Quinn saw in her, but she couldn't possibly be Brittany's type.

Sure enough, Brittany drove straight to Rachel's house. Santana backed off even more, pulling to the curb a few houses from the Berry residence. She waited while Brittany got out of the car and walked up to the door, knocking on it. As soon as Brittany was in the house, Santana was going to sneak over and spy on them. She knew exactly where the spare key was, so she could easily get into the house undetected.

However, when the door opened, they didn't go inside. Rachel closed the door behind her and they stood and talked for a moment before Rachel reached out, hugging Brittany. Santana narrowed her eyes at the sight and when the hug went on far too long, she gripped the wheel so tight that she thought she was going to owe Quinn for a new steering wheel. Eventually, they parted and Rachel went back inside, leaving Brittany standing on the welcome mat. A few seconds later, though, Rachel came back out and the two walked to Brittany's car.

She ducked down again when Brittany's car drove past and waited a sufficient amount of time before pulling out herself. Brittany may not have noticed that she was following, but she knew Rachel certainly would if she wasn't careful. So, she hung back as far as she could while still being able to see which way they were going. It wasn't hard to keep up, though; Brittany drove right back to her house, where the two got out and walked inside.

Santana got out of Quinn's car and walked up to the house. The Pierce's didn't keep a spare key anywhere, so her only hope was spying through the window. But as she walked around the house, all the curtains were closed. There was a slight gap in the one in the kitchen, but she couldn't see Brittany or Rachel from there. She frowned as she glanced around for some way inside and then looked to the right when the light turned on in Brittany's bedroom

"Shit," Santana said, wondering what to do now.

* * *

When Quinn walked into the training room on Friday, she knew her Watcher wasn't going to be happy. She had been patrolling the past three nights, but other than maybe seeing something the first night, she'd come up empty. She was trying to do research about it, but she had next to nothing to go on. She thought about going to Artie to see if he could hack the medical examiner's files again, but she was afraid that he would begin to ask questions.

"Find anything, Fabray?" Coach Beiste asked when she looked over her shoulder and noticed that Quinn had entered.

"Nothing," Quinn replied.

"Nothing?" Beiste repeated.

"Just a few vampires, but that's nothing out of the ordinary," Quinn said with a shrug.

"Where'd you patrol last night?" Beiste asked.

"All the cemeteries on the east side of town," Quinn replied.

"Was the vampire with you?" Beiste asked, nodding toward Santana.

Quinn tried not to laugh as Santana narrowed her eyes at the back of Coach Beiste's head. "No."

"I thought maybe it could be useful for once and maybe notice something you didn't," Beiste commented.

Quinn tried to hide her smile behind her hand. Her Watcher didn't like that she was friends with a vampire and usually talked about Santana like she wasn't in the room. It amused Quinn, but Santana was a little less thrilled by it.

"Patrol again tonight and tomorrow," Beiste ordered. "If you still come up with the big goose egg, you can go back to your usual patrolling.

Quinn nodded and her Watcher walked away, leaving the room.

"I would bite that bitch if I could," Santana stated.

"Sure you would," Quinn replied.

Quinn began walking to the side of the room to grab a crossbow. It had been a while since she had used one—when she fought Shelby, actually—and she thought it might be beneficial to get some training in. She grabbed the crossbow and began looking for the arrows, which her Watcher moved and she had no idea where they now were.

"I think my Britts and your Hobbit are having sex."

Quinn froze as what Santana just said began to sink in. "They're what?"

"Having. Sex." Santana stated, slowly enunciating the two words.

"Okay, for once, don't call Rachel that," Quinn replied. "And two, she's not my anything. There—are you crazy?"

"My Britts is lying to me," Santana declared. "She's been blowing me off every night and I finally followed her last night."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "You know she would never do anything behind your back. She loves you too much. God only knows why."

Santana narrowed her eyes again. "Then you might be interested to know that I followed her to the midget's house."

"So?" Quinn asked. "They're friends."

"B picked her up, took the dwarf to her house, and they were in Britt's bedroom all night," Santana replied. "I know what happens in that room."

"That doesn't mean anything," Quinn said, crossing her arms.

"Then why'd she lie to me?" Santana asked. "While they were in there, I called to ask what she was going. She said she was studying. Alone."

"Brittany may have lied to you, but she's not sleeping with Rachel," Quinn said, getting slightly angry that the vampire would even suggest it.

"Don't get your panties in a twist," Santana said, holding her hand up. "Though Berry has always seemed to have that effect on you. You broke up with her, remember? I'm the one who should be pissed here if Berry is screwing my Britts."

"Can you stop saying that?" Quinn asked, her voice getting louder. "Even if Brittany was cheating on you, which I doubt, Rachel wouldn't do that."

"Why not?" Santana asked. "Again, you dumped her. She's free to f—"

"I meant she wouldn't do that to you," Quinn said, interrupting the vampire. "You know Rachel. Even if you're not really talking to her, she wouldn't hurt you like that."

"How do you know?" Santana asked.

"Because I know her," Quinn retorted.

"She lied to you!" Santana stated. "What makes you think you really know anything about her?"

Quinn shook her head in exasperation. "Fine, believe whatever you want to believe."

She ripped open a drawer to check for the arrows, but she pulled too hard and it came out of the desk, sending everything crashing to the floor. Sighing, she kneeled down and began picking everything up while Santana began laughing behind her. She rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the vampire as she threw everything back where it was. When she finally had everything in, she put the drawer back in place, and moved on to the next drawer, opening it a little less forcefully.

When the arrows weren't in the drawer, she slammed it shut and then put the crossbow back on its peg. Santana had wasted enough of her time and she wasn't going to waste any more looking for the damn arrows. Turning, she walked to the punching bag, deciding maybe that's what she needed, instead.

* * *

Quinn stood at her locker, trying to not look down the hall. She knew Rachel was at the other end, having just come out of the choir room with Brittany. Neither of them was in the cafeteria and now she knew why. She told herself that they had to be rehearsing for Glee—it was Friday and Rachel never went a week without performing—but Santana's voice kept coming into her head. She knew it was ridiculous, though. Not only would Brittany not cheat on Santana, but there was no way Rachel would ever do that.

Santana may be right about Rachel lying to her, but there was also no way she lied about everything. Despite Santana's claims, she knew Rachel. She probably knew her better than anyone did, and the brunette would never sleep with someone who was with someone else. Especially not when she knew them as well as she knew Brittany and Santana. Quinn knew she would never betray someone like that even if she did betray her the way she did, but it was a different sort of betrayal.

She failed and glanced down the hallway; Rachel was standing there, talking to Kurt, Mercedes, and Tina. At least Brittany was no longer around. Quinn shook her head. She didn't know why she was letting Santana get to her like she was. Even if Rachel and Brittany were sleeping together—which they were _not_—it really wouldn't be any of Quinn's business anyway. Rachel was free to do whatever she wanted because, as Santana pointed out, she did dump her, and it had been nearly a half a year.

That didn't make her any less nauseated just thinking about it, though.

"Sup, Q," Puck said, appearing what felt like out of nowhere.

"Nothing," Quinn said flatly.

"Alright, then," Puck said, backing away. "I'm just gonna go somewhere else because you seem like you're in a bad mood and I'd rather you not kick my ass."

Quinn rolled her eyes; she wasn't in a bad mood. Okay, maybe she was, but it's not like she would get violent. At least not with Puck—maybe with Santana.

She slammed her locker shut and made her way down the hall to her fourth period class. When she walked in, she was the only one in the room, but she didn't feel like standing in the hall, trying not to look at Rachel. Unfortunately Rachel was in this class and sat right next to her. Quinn had thought about moving to put some distance between them, but she told herself she could just ignore the brunette. Besides, she didn't want Rachel knowing she was getting to her in any way.

Quinn sat down, throwing her bag to the ground a little harder than she'd intended and the next thing she knew, Rachel was asking, "Is everything okay."

Quinn froze for a moment before deciding to act nonchalant. "What do you mean?"

"You threw your bag," Rachel pointed out.

"I'm fine," Quinn replied, sitting down.

"Okay," Rachel said with a nod.

Rachel crossed the room, taking her seat, and Quinn stared at the white board. She was far too aware that Rachel was beside her, often looking in her direction as if she wanted to say something, but Quinn tried her best to ignore it. She didn't want to know what Rachel was thinking—or at least didn't want to want to know.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Rachel asked.

"I'm fine," Quinn said a little more forceful than she'd intended.

"I know things are rather strained between us and I may be the last person you would ever want to talk with, but I am here if you need me," Rachel said. "I know there aren't a lot of people you can talk to about certain things, and Noah and Santana are probably not the best listeners, which really only leaves you with Brittany."

Quinn tensed as the name came out of Rachel's mouth. Unfortunately Rachel seemed to notice because a small frown formed on her face and she looked at Quinn curiously.

"Quinn?"

The blonde sighed. "What?" She looked at Rachel. "There's nothing going on, okay? It's just—been a long week."

"I understand," Rachel said softly. "It's been a fairly exhausting week for me as well."

"Why?" Quinn asked before she could stop herself.

"I've just been working on this project," Rachel said, shrugging her shoulders. "It's nothing like I'm sure you're going through right now considering how stressful Slaying is, but it's been rather time consuming the past few nights."

Quinn wanted to ask more about it, but it definitely didn't sound as if she and Brittany were having sex. Not that she ever really thought it to begin with. She had no idea what this 'project' was, but it was obviously something Brittany didn't want Santana knowing she was doing. Knowing Brittany, it could be anything, but if Rachel was helping her, it was obviously nothing too dangerous since she knew the brunette would never agree to something that could possibly hurt someone.

She wasn't going to tell Santana about this, though. She was just going to let her continue to suffer and think something was going on between Rachel and Brittany. It would serve her right for spying on them.

* * *

Quinn walked through the cemetery and looked around. She kept hearing a strange noise and was trying to figure out where it was coming from. It was a large cemetery with many mausoleums, which made it hard to see anything because her view was always obstructed by one large building after another. She knew she was getting closer; the sound was becoming louder, but she still couldn't tell what it was. It almost sounded as if a dog was lapping something up, but she didn't know why a dog would be out here.

She partly wondered if Santana was out here messing with her again, but she knew the vampire was following Brittany and Rachel again. She'd spied on them the previous night, too, following them to Brittany's house again. She was becoming more and more convinced that they were having some sort of affair even though Quinn tried to tell her multiple times that she was crazy. Quinn had no idea why her friend was so convinced that Brittany would cheat on her; it just wasn't like the blonde to do so. Yes, she'd slept with quite a few people in the school, but that was before she and Santana became serious and the vampire had no right to bring that up as a reason not to trust her girlfriend. Which is exactly what Quinn told her when she did bring it up.

Quinn didn't know what Brittany and Rachel were doing, but she really didn't care. If they didn't want anyone to know, that was their business. Whatever it was, Quinn figured it was something important if Brittany was lying about it. The blonde was a terrible liar and usually didn't even try to conceal anything because of it. Plus, she often said it was bad for the soul and thought it would make her come back in her next life as 'something squishy'—her words.

She paused when she realized the noise was coming from just around the corner of the next crypt. She had a stake in her hand, but it didn't sound like any vampire she'd ever come across so she quietly kneeled to the ground, setting her bag down. As silently as should could, she opened her bag and felt around for something sharp. She may not know what was around the corner, but she found that stabbing or beheading just about any demon would kill it. She didn't have a sword—the bag was far too small to hold one—but she did have a long dagger that would probably work. At any rate, it was the best she had at the moment, so it would have to do.

Leaving her bag on the ground so it didn't get lost or inhibit her fighting, she stood. She peeked around the corner and then quickly took cover again. She frowned, trying to figure out what she just saw. It was definitely not a vampire, but she didn't know what it was. It almost looked human, but it was on all fours and was much paler than any human she had ever seen. It was so pale that it was practically translucent.

She looked around the corner again and realized it was hovering over something. At first she didn't know what it was, but then she saw the legs and realized it was a person. Gripping the dagger tighter, she took a step forward, hoping to surprise the thing, but it whipped its head around, looking right at her. Quinn recoiled at the sight, and the demon made a sound that was halfway between a screech and a hiss. Before she knew what it was doing, the demon turned and began running away, leaving a stunned Quinn behind.

After a moment, she started running after it, but it was fast—much faster than her. She tried to keep up with it, but for every step she took, it seemed to take two. It was running on all fours and she wondered if it could even walk just on its hind legs. Its arms were the longest part of its body and it reminded her of a gorilla in the way it ran.

Eventually, Quinn skid to a stop in the middle of the road, giving up; there was no way she was going to catch up to the thing. Instead, she turned and headed back to the body on the ground. From what she saw, the body was definitely human, though she was hoping that maybe it was a vampire and not some innocent person.

When she finally rounded the corner of the crypt, she had to look away. The top half of the body looked as if it had been eaten, leaving only the skeleton behind while the lower half of the body remained intact. Quinn tried to look at the body again, but she thought she was going to be sick if she did. So, she turned away, walked back to her bag, and pulled out her phone.

"Nine one one, what is your emergency?"

"There's a body in Brooks Cemetery," Quinn stated.

She knew she was going to have to stick around to answer questions—questions she wouldn't be able to answer truthfully—but she couldn't just leave it there for someone to find.

* * *

"Okay, guys, I would like to introduce a new member to the club, so everyone give a hand for Sam Evans!" Mr. Schue began clapping and stepped out of the way as the blonde headed boy jogged into the room.

"Hey, everyone," he said, waving at them, his eyes lingering on Quinn a little too long for her comfort. "I'm Sam."

Quinn rolled her eyes; like they didn't know that considering their teacher just introduced him. She was trying to be civil when it came to him, but he was really starting to rub her the wrong way. She wondered why he was even here; she could guess why, though. She constantly caught him looking at her and she knew it was only a matter of time before he asked her out. Maybe before she would have been flattered, but now she just didn't care. She had too many other things to worry about than some boy with a crush.

"I hope everyone makes Sam feel welcome," Mr. Schue said when the boy was done. "Now on to this week's assignment."

He clapped Sam on the shoulder and the boy walked over to the risers, sitting down next to Quinn. It wasn't the only seat open and there was actually one available in the front row, so she knew he deliberately sat next to her. She looked away, trying to ignore him, and noticed Rachel looked at them. She looked away the moment Quinn caught her eye, but it wasn't quick enough. She'd had a slight frown on her face as she looked at Sam and Quinn knew she was worried.

"Okay, our assignment this week is boys versus girls," Mr. Schue said as he wrote it on the small whiteboard. "Not only will you be performing as groups against each other, but we will team up a girl and boy to go against each other as well, so each of you will be singing twice this week, no exceptions. We'll have two special guest judges this week to determine the winner of each matchup. If there are no questions, I'll let you get in your groups now, so you can discuss what you would like to do." He looked around. "Okay, you can take the rest of the period to work on your assignment.

"Boys versus girls, huh," Sam said with a smile.

"Yeah, I think Mr. Schue ran out of ideas a long time ago," Quinn remarked as she stood.

She left Sam behind and followed Rachel across the room since she was automatically in charge any time she was in a group. It was just easier for everyone involved if they didn't argue with her. Sometimes Mercedes still tried, but most of them were smart enough to know they were more likely to win when Rachel was left to her own devices.

"At least this should be a fun week," Rachel commented to Quinn. "I always enjoy winning a competition."

"Kurt, you're with the boys again," Mr. Schue said when he tried to join the girl on the other side of the room.

"Rach, can I talk to you a second," Brittany said, coming up to the brunette.

Quinn watched as they walked just out of earshot. Brittany whispered something in Rachel's ear and the latter nodded. Quinn frowned at the sight, wondering what they were up to. Santana was still following them every night and still thought they were sleeping together. Quinn continued to think the vampire was crazy, but that didn't stop her from being a little jealous at how close Rachel and Brittany were at the moment. She knew she had no right to be considering it was her decision to end the relationship, but that didn't stop her from feeling the way she did.

"The new guy's cute," Mercedes said, looking over her shoulder as she walked to the group that was forming.

"If you say so," Quinn replied, just not seeing it.

At first she thought he was fairly good looking, but the more she looked at him, the weirder she thought he looked. His lips were far too big for his face that it was actually distracting, and his hair was so light that it looked like he used peroxide to lighten it.

"I know you like girls now or whatever, but you can't say he's not cute," Mercedes said, raising her eyebrow.

Quinn gave Mercedes a look, choosing to ignore her. She looked back at Rachel and Brittany, who were still whispering to one another. The rest of the group was waiting on them, but they didn't seem to notice.

"Can you two finish this up another time?" Quinn asked in annoyance.

"Yes, sorry," Rachel said, ducking her head.

Quinn shook her head, frowning, and crossed her arms over her chest. Brittany gave her a sad look, which only made her even more annoyed for some reason. She felt irrationally angry with her friend and really didn't want Brittany's pitying face at the moment.

* * *

"I don't understand why you're not following Brittany again," Quinn commented as she walked down the sidewalk.

"What's the point?" Santana asked. "The curtains are closed every damn time, so I can't see a damn thing. Not that I want to see the Hobbit writhing on Britt's—"

"Enough!" Quinn said, not wanting to know where Santana was going with that sentence. "For the last time, there is nothing going on between them.

"Please, they're totally doing it," Santana said, rolling her eyes. "Britts still won't tell me what the hell she's doing; if she wasn't screwing Berry, why wouldn't she tell me?"

"Who knows," Quinn replied. "It could be anything. Maybe she's trying to surprise you with something and Rachel's helping her with it."

"So naive," Santana said, shaking her head. "Maybe you need to get some and then you'll understand. I still can't believe you and the midget never had sex. As disgustingly in love as you two were, I'm surprised you ever managed to keep it in your pants."

"Can you stop talking?" Quinn asked.

"Why?" Santana asked back. "Don't wanna hear the truth?"

Quinn walked in silence, hoping the vampire would finally be quiet about it. She was driving her nuts, getting more and more paranoid with each passing day. Quinn was so tired of hearing about it that she was ready to go to Brittany herself and tell her to let Santana know what she was doing, whatever it was.

As she walked into the cemetery, Santana thankfully stayed quiet. If the demon was around, she didn't want the vampire to scare it off. She now knew it was called a Baelin and it liked to eat dead things. The person in the graveyard the previous night was probably a person killed by a vampire and the demon was just going along after it, eating what it killed. They didn't like noise, light, or really anything, so it was hard to come across them.

"Okay, what the hell are we doing out here?" Santana asked.

"Killing a demon," Quinn stated. "I thought that much was obvious."

"But who cares?" Santana asked. "Beiste said it only eats dead things, so what's it matter that it's going around feeding off—"

Santana let out a scream that Quinn wasn't expecting and when she turned to look at her, the vampire was clutching her side, staggering back. The next thing Quinn knew, Santana was knocked to the ground and the Baelin was on top of her. It let out a strange noise before quickly biting down on Santana's shoulder, causing her to scream again. She was struggling to get the demon off of her, but it looked as if she could barely move.

Quinn grabbed the dagger from the back of her pants and ran toward Santana and the demon. Just as she was about to stab it, Santana flipped them over; Quinn barely stopped the blade's descent and it hovered inches from Santana's back. The vampire was fighting with the demon, rolling around on the ground with it as it tried to bite her again. Quinn could only stand to the side and watch, too afraid of accidently stabbing Santana instead of the demon.

"Get this thing off me!" Santana yelled.

"Stop moving and maybe I can!" Quinn yelled back.

It did no good; Santana continued to struggle with it while Quinn just watched and waited. The demon was definitely stronger than it looked and the vampire was barely holding it off. Finally, Santana seemed to lose what little upper hand she had gained and the demon pinned her once again, biting down on her arm. As Santana let out a yell of pain, Quinn rushed over, driving the dagger into the demon's back multiple times. It let out an earsplitting screech, but after several more stabs, it finally stopped screeching and stopped moving, dropping onto Santana with a thud.

Quinn pried the demon off her friend and helped Santana off the ground. She was bleeding from three different places and looked as if she could barely stand, so Quinn set her back down on the ground. Leaving her, she rushed to her bag where she'd dropped it and pulled out her makeshift first aid kit. Rachel had made it for her and insisted she bring it with her while on patrol. She'd never really used it for more than a few scrapes and didn't know how much good it would do at the moment considering how much Santana was bleeding. She knew the wounds wouldn't kill Santana—she was a vampire after all—but she still needed to stop the bleeding.

"Maybe this will help," Quinn said, going back over to Santana.

"What the hell was that?" Santana asked.

"That was the Baelin," Quinn answered.

"Why the hell did that thing attack me?!" Santana asked.

"Well, you are technically dead," Quinn commented.

Santana scoffed. "Asshole."

"It's true," Quinn said, shrugging.

"I mean it's an asshole, not you," Santana said. "But you're an asshole, too."

Quinn rolled her eyes as she picked up some gauze from the kit. After throwing some to Santana, she ripped a package open and lifted up the vampire's shirt and placed the gauze on her side, which seemed to be the worst wound. It was soaked in no time, but Quinn kept pressure on it while Santana opened up the other package and put it on her shoulder.

"Maybe you should have followed Brittany again tonight," Quinn remarked.

"Fuck you, Fabray," Santana replied.

* * *

"So it's dead?" Beiste asked.

Quinn nodded. "It's dead."

"Good job," Beiste said, giving Quinn a halfhearted smile. "I'll let the Council know the creature has been taken care of."

Her Watcher walked out of the training room, presumably to go to her office to make the call or send the email—Quinn didn't really know how she contacted them. As stuffy as the whole Council seemed, she was surprised they didn't make her contact them through telegraph or carrier pidgin.

"Oh, no, I'm completely fine; thanks for asking," Santana mumbled. "Bitch."

"How's the shoulder?" Quinn asked, slightly amused.

"Hurts like hell," Santana stated. "I think that fucker took a chunk out of my side." Santana held up her shirt. "What do you think? Does it look like I'm missing a part?"

Quinn scrunched up her face in disgust and put her hand up so she couldn't see the vampire. "Put your shirt down."

"Why? It's not like you haven't seen it before," Santana replied.

"That doesn't mean I want to see it now," Quinn remarked.

"That thing doesn't, like, carry any diseases, does it?" Santana asked.

Quinn shrugged. "I guess you'll find out."

Santana put her shirt down, rolling her eyes, and Quinn put her hand down. The vampire's wounds were still incredibly gross even though they were healing at a much faster rate than if she was human. Actually, if Santana had been human, Quinn figured she probably would have died with how much blood she lost. It took them an hour sitting in the cemetery before it finally got under control and she could move Santana to her car. Unfortunately, she still bled all over her interior and it would have to stay like that because she couldn't afford to have it cleaned.

"Does Brittany know you're hurt?" Quinn asked, realizing the other girl would probably be in there if she knew.

"No," Santana replied. "And I'm not going to. If she's gonna keep lying to me then I'm going to lie right back."

As soon as she was done saying it, the door opened and the blonde appeared. Santana looked surprised and tried to cover up the bandage on her neck by covering it with her hand while she tried to put her other arm behind her back. It was no use; Brittany had obviously seen it by the look on her face and the fact that she was rushing over to the vampire.

"San, what happened?" Brittany asked, pulling on the other girl's arm to make her stop covering herself.

"It's nothing," Santana replied.

Brittany frowned. "We'll talk about this later."

"Wh—"

"Come with me," Brittany interrupted, grabbing Santana's good arm, and pulling her toward the door.

"Britt, honey, there's people out there," Santana reminded her.

"I know," Brittany said brightly.

"Brittany, you really shouldn't take her out there," Quinn called after them.

Brittany didn't stop, though. She dragged Santana through the locker room, where quite a few Cheerios were, and into the hallway. Santana did her best to not be seen by anyone, but it was hard considering the hall was filled with people. Several people looked at her as they walked by, but no one said anything or looked as if they recognized her in the slightest. When Kurt walked by without so much as a second glance at Santana, Quinn really wondered what was going on. She looked around and found Rachel standing nearby with a smile on her face, which only confused Quinn even more.

"Brittany, what's going on?" Quinn asked.

"I did a spell," Brittany said in a hushed whisper. "Well, Rachel helped me."

"What sort of spell?" Quinn asked.

"San's been so lonely and everything and I just thought she should be able to go out," Brittany replied. "Well, obviously not in the daylight, but now she can go to school with us!"

"What did you do?" Santana asked, finally giving up trying not to be seen.

"You don't look like you," Brittany stated.

"She looks like Santana to me," Quinn said.

"I know!" Brittany said in a cheerful voice. "Isn't it cool? She looks like San to people who know she's her, but to everyone else, she looks like a totally different person."

"You cast a spell to make Santana look different?" Quinn asked.

Brittany hummed and nodded. "It wouldn't have been that hard, but I didn't want to see someone else when I saw her, so I had to make a new spell. That's what Rachel helped with; she found a spell for me that I could combine with this other one. It took us a while, but we finally got it last night!"

"So, I suppose you two were spending a lot of time together because you were trying to find a spell that would help Santana," Quinn stated, giving the vampire a pointed look.

"Yep!" Brittany said, smiling.

Quinn couldn't help but shake her head and laugh. So much for all of Santana's worrying. And if she was being honest, maybe she'd been a little worried, too.


	3. Be Careful

**Chapter 3 – Be Careful…**

Quinn got knocked back, nearly tripping over her own feet, but she fell onto a gravestone, which kept her from hitting the ground. She heard the vampire growl behind her and slowly pulled a stake out of her pocket. The vampire clearly thought she had stumbled across an easy meal, but Quinn was going to make it regret that punch.

She heard the vampire run at her while she was still facing away. At the last moment, she spun out of the way, causing the vampire to go smashing into the headstone. It growled again, looking over at her, and Quinn threw a punch. The first one connected, but the vampire moved the second time and Quinn narrowly avoided hitting the stone.

The vampire tackled her, nearly knocking the wind out of Quinn when her back hit the ground. The vampire tried biting her, but Quinn head-butted it instead. The move dazed the blonde for a moment, but she quickly shook it off and knocked the vampire off of her. While the vampire was on its back, Quinn took the opportunity to put the stake through its heart. The vampire looked her in the eyes and exploded a moment later, covering Quinn's jeans in dust.

"Hey!" Brittany suddenly said, causing her to jump.

"What are you doing out here?" Quinn asked as she dusted off her jeans.

"We've been looking for you," Brittany stated. "Me and San are going to a movie and I wanted to see if you wanted to come."

Quinn shook her head. "You two go."

Brittany pouted. "But you're always patrolling. You never get to have fun anymore."

"You do sort of have a stick up your ass these days," Santana chimed in. "Not that that's really any different than before."

"Just come with us this once," Brittany begged.

Quinn sighed. "I wish I could, but the Council is coming soon and Beiste wants me out here every night."

"Fuck the Council," Santana said. "Who cares what they think. Even if you're the worst Slayer ever—and you probably are—there's nothing they can do about it. They're stuck with you until you die."

"That's easier said than done," Quinn said, shaking her head, and ignoring the jab about her abilities.

"Why?" Santana asked, crossing her arms.

"The Council has resources," Quinn stated. "I might need their help some day."

"It's not like they've really helped you before," Santana remarked. "They just try to tell you what to do while they sit on their asses in another country."

Quinn didn't disagree with Santana, but she didn't want to make the Council angry with her. She figured they could make her life very difficult if they wanted to and that was the last thing she needed. So, she would jump through their hoops again if she had to in order to appease them.

"Are you sure you won't come with us?" Brittany asked.

Quinn shook her head. "I appreciate the invitation, but I really should stay out here."

Santana shrugged. "Your loss."

"Maybe we should help her," Brittany said, turning to Santana.

"Really, I'm fine," Quinn said when the vampire shot her a glare. "You and Santana should enjoy the movie."

Ever since Brittany performed the spell to make Santana appear different, they had been going out a lot. She supposed they were just making up for lost time. It had been so long since they were able to act like a normal couple and she knew they were both enjoying it. Santana seemed a little less thrilled about going back to school, though. Artie had been the one to hack into the school records, allowing her to go back. He had no idea what it was for and, thankfully, didn't ask any questions.

"See, she's fine," Santana said, trying to pull her girlfriend away.

"Call me if you need us," Brittany called over her shoulder as Santana continued to usher her away.

Santana looked back at her, making it clear that she would regret it if she did call. Quinn had no intention of doing that, though. She was happy her friends could have a semi-normal life again and she wasn't going to take away from that. She was trying to not burden her friends with her Slayer responsibilities any more. She felt like bringing friends into that world would only ever end in disaster. She hated depending on people, and even more so, she hated putting people she cared about in danger. It's why she tried to patrol alone now and rarely asked her friends for anything more than to help with research. And she was going to do her best to keep it that way.

* * *

As Quinn walked down the hall, she looked around and wondered what was going on. People were congregated together a lot more than usual. Some were talking in hushed whispers, but others were not. She would catch bits of the conversations, but not enough to know what was going on. At least she didn't think it was about her since no one was really paying attention to her as she walked by.

Just as she was thinking she should find one of her friends, Brittany called out her name. She turned and watched her friend hurry down the hall, pulling Santana—or Ana as they call her while in school—behind her.

"Have you seen?" Brittany brightly asked.

"Seen what?" Quinn asked. "What is everyone talking about?"

"Artie," Brittany replied. "He can walk!"

It took a moment for what Brittany said to sink in. "What?"

"Wheels McCripple can walk," Santana stated.

"How?" Quinn asked.

Brittany shrugged. "He said he woke up and could move his legs again.

Quinn frowned; she wanted to believe it was as simple as that, but she had a bad feeling about it. She knew people didn't generally just begin walking about being paralyzed for years, and considering they lived on the Hellmouth, she sensed there was probably another explanation for it.

Quinn locked eyes with the vampire, who said, "I'm guessing you're thinking what I'm thinking."

"Unfortunately," Quinn said with a sigh.

Brittany frowned. "What are you thinking?"

"That it's too good to be true," Quinn answered.

"You don't know that," Brittany replied. "Good things do happen sometimes."

"We know that, B, but this is Lima," Santana said softly. "Bad shit usually happens here, not good."

"Do you know where he is?" Quinn asked. "I need to talk to him and make sure he didn't do something that's going to get him in trouble."

"He was dancing in the auditorium earlier," Santana said, shrugging.

Quinn nodded and headed in that direction. She knew Artie's dream was to be a dancer—Tina let it slip one day—and she really hoped this was just some kind of miracle. She really didn't want to be the one to take it away, but if it would save his life, she knew she would have to. She'd read about demons making pacts with humans to give them something they desired; there were always consequences and none of them were good.

When she neared the auditorium, there were a bunch of students huddled around the door. She rolled her eyes and loudly cleared her throat. Most of them turned to look at her and she raised her eyebrows at them. All but a few scrambled away from the door, and the ones who didn't, quickly did when she squared her shoulders and leveled them with a glare.

When she walked into the auditorium, she pointedly slammed the door behind her in hopes that all the gawkers would leave. It caught Artie's attention, too, and he looked up, smiling at her. It was strange seeing him standing on the stage and he looked so happy that she really didn't want to do what she was about to do.

"Hey, Quinn," he greeted her. "I take it you heard."

"Yeah," Quinn said, looking down at his legs. "How did it happen?"

Artie shrugged, throwing his hands out. "I don't know. I woke up yesterday and I could just walk. My mom took me to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests, but they said they can't explain it. I look like any perfectly healthy fifteen year old."

"You really have no idea?" Quinn asked.

Artie shook his head. "None, and I don't really care. It's something I've wished for every night and I don't care how it happened, just that it happened."

Quinn didn't get the sense that he was lying, but that didn't mean he wasn't. Rachel was keeping something from her for months and she had no clue. She found it impossible to believe that this was something that just happened and it was also hard to believe that Artie had no idea how it happened.

"You look skeptical," Artie observed.

"I just—things like this don't usually just happen," Quinn stated.

"I know," Artie replied. "The doctors are a little baffled by it, but they say the damage must not have been as bad as they originally thought."

Quinn was no doctor, but it seemed unlikely to her that he would miraculously be better one morning. If he was slowly healing, wouldn't he slowly be able to move his legs? And it also didn't explain how he was able to walk after years in a wheelchair. She knew his legs wouldn't be strong enough after so long of not using them. She really hoped she was wrong and it was some kind of miracle, but her realistic side was telling her there was something else at work here.

* * *

"Can we talk?"

Quinn looked up to find Rachel looking down at her. The blonde glanced at Brittany, who have her an encouraging smile, and then at Santana, who just cocked her eyebrow. She wanted to say no, but Rachel looked so anxious that she nodded and stood. Rachel didn't say anything; instead, she turned and began walking toward the cafeteria doors, and Quinn had no choice but to follow her. Predictably, Rachel led them to the choir room and closed all the doors once she made sure they were alone.

"What did you want to talk about?" Quinn asked, hoping to get straight to the point.

"Artie," Rachel stated. "I assume you have seen him or at least heard that he has regained the use of his legs."

"It's all anyone's talked about all day," Quinn replied.

Rachel nodded. "I don't know about you, but I find it a little difficult to believe that it happened overnight."

"What are you saying?" Quinn asked, wanting to know what Rachel thought before letting her know that she agreed.

"I'm saying I think it was supernatural rather than natural," Rachel stated. "I am incredibly happy for him, but I do not think it just happened. I don't know if it was a spell or if he made a deal with a less than reputable source or if it was something else entirely, but I don't believe it was natural."

Quinn sighed. "I agree with you."

"You do?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah," Quinn said with a nod. "This is Lima, after all."

"Maybe you should speak with him," Rachel suggested.

"I did," Quinn replied. "As soon as Brittany told me about it this morning, I went to him. He insisted he just woke up yesterday and could walk. But even if he could suddenly move his legs, wouldn't it take lots of physical therapy to even be able to stand, let along dance like he was when I saw him?"

"Yes," Rachel replied. "He has been in that chair since he was eight; his legs would never be strong enough to support his weight after seven years of inactivity."

"The thing is, I didn't feel like he was lying to me," Quinn said. "Not that I can always tell, though."

Quinn could see the hurt in Rachel's eyes when she said it. She looked away, regretting that she said it, but there was nothing she could do to take it back.

"Would you like me to talk to him?" Rachel quietly asked after a few moments. "Maybe he will tell me something he didn't tell you. You can be rather intimidating, so he may be more willing to discuss the situation with me."

"You can try," Quinn replied.

Rachel nodded. "I will let you know if I find out anything."

Rachel turned on her heel and quickly walked out of the room, leaving Quinn to watch her go. She sighed and shook her head. It was so frustrating talking to the brunette. There were a hundred things she wanted to say to her, but at the same time, she didn't want to say anything. It was hard going from telling everything to not speaking. Even after all these months, her first thought was to go to Rachel any time something happened.

"Oh, sorry."

Quinn looked over to find the new kid, Sam, hovering near the door. "It's fine."

"I didn't think anyone would be in here," Sam remarked. "I was gonna practice; I'm not used to really singing in front of people and I'm a little nervous."

"I was just leaving," Quinn said when Sam smiled awkwardly at her.

"Were you practicing, too?" Sam asked.

"No," Quinn said flatly. "Rachel wanted to talk."

"I didn't know you two were friends," Sam replied.

"It's complicated," Quinn stated. "Things have been weird since we broke up."

Sam's smile instantly dropped off his face. "You two, like, dated?"

"Yep," Quinn said simply.

"Oh," Sam said with a frown.

"Later," Quinn said, taking the opportunity to slip out of the room.

She didn't care if Sam was left stunned. They weren't friends and she had no qualms about crushing any dream he had of dating her. Even if she was over Rachel and hadn't finally accepted her sexuality, she wouldn't have been interested in him. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but he was a little too dorky with his impressions.

* * *

Quinn rubbed her eye as she turned the page; she was trying not to fall asleep, but doing research always bored her. She didn't exactly enjoy patrolling, but she would rather do that than sit in a room, staring at a book. She had tried looking online for something that could have caused Artie to walk again, but there were too many different options to really narrow it down. So, she hit the books; she didn't even know what she hoped to find, but she felt like it was better than doing nothing.

There were just so many different demons that she didn't know where to begin. She'd found ones that had the ability to heal, but it just transferred it to someone else; there were ones that would make a pact with a human, but it usually resulted in them owning the person's soul or committing them to doing something terrible; and then there were many other various ways of doing it. Unless Rachel learned something that she didn't, Quinn had no way to narrow it down. Currently, she was trying to compare any demon that could have done it with other incidents that had been happening in Lima recently. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how you look at it—there hadn't been a lot going on in the past week.

"What are you still doing here?" Brittany asked.

"Research," Quinn replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Meeting San," Brittany replied. "Do you know where she is?"

Quinn shook her head. "I haven't seen her in hours."

Brittany walked over and picked up one of the books, flipping through it. "What are you doing research for?"

"I was just trying to see if there was anything to explain Artie's situation," Quinn replied.

Brittany frowned. "I don't know why you, San, and Rach all think it's something bad. Shouldn't we be happy that our friend can walk again?"

"I am happy for him," Quinn said softly. "I'm just worried that he did something he shouldn't have."

Brittany didn't say anything else; Quinn knew she didn't agree with her or Santana. The blonde was an optimist, though; she always wanted to see the bright side of things and didn't like to think about the bad things. Sometimes Quinn wished she could be that way, but she was far too jaded. She would love to believe that Artie could just magically walk one day, but she just couldn't let herself believe it. She knew something else had to be at play and she was going to figure out what it was before it was too late.

"Is there any sort of spell that could have done it?" Quinn asked

"Yes, but it would be very dangerous and it wouldn't be easy," Brittany answered. "There are also consequences for that sort of thing. Things have to balance out or bad things can happen that you don't mean to."

"But it is possible?" Quinn asked.

Brittany nodded. "But I don't know anyone that would do it. Bad things could happen. Not just to Artie, but to whoever did the spell or other people."

Quinn was going to keep that in mind, but she didn't know who would be willing to do a spell like that. Brittany and her family were the only witches she knew and it obviously wasn't any of them. She wondered how many other witches there were in Lima and if any of them were skilled enough to work a spell of this magnitude.

"Hey, do you know of any witches that _could_ do it?" Quinn asked.

"A few," Brittany said, shrugging.

"How many witches are in Lima?" Quinn wondered.

"Not a lot," Brittany answered. "Well, not ones that can do spells like I can. I only know two other families." Brittany shrugged as she sat down. "But there could be ones here that I don't know about."

"Thanks," Quinn said through a yawn.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Brittany said, looking at her in concern.

"I'm fine," Quinn said, shaking her head.

She really didn't know why she was so tired; it wasn't even that late and she went to bed at a moderately decent time the night before. For her, anyway. She at least got four hours of sleep, which was twice as much as she normally got.

"Are you sure?" Brittany asked, furrowing her brows.

"I'm sure," Quinn said, tossing her book aside. "I think I might patrol since I'm not really getting anywhere right now."

"Do you want company?" Brittany asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be meeting Santana?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah, but she should've already been here," Brittany said with a shrug.

"That's probably her right now," Quinn commented when she heard footsteps in the locker room.

"Where've you been?" Brittany asked as soon as the vampire entered the room.

"I was talking to Coach Sylvester," Santana replied. "She made me spend the past four hours proving that I'm good enough to be on the Cheerios again. Bitch."

"You're joining the Cheerios?" Brittany asked, her face brightening.

"How?" Quinn asked. "Don't they still practice outside in the morning? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you'll burst into flames if you're in the sun."

"How stupid do you think I am?" Santana asked, scoffing. "She's going to hold practice in the gym."

"She actually agreed to that?" Quinn asked, finding it a little hard to believe.

Santana shrugged. "I can be quite persuasive when I want to be."

Quinn's eyebrow rose; she found it hard to believe that Sue Sylvester would ever change anything for anyone. "How did you manage that?"

"She lost her two best Cheerios when I died and your ass quit—other than Britts of course," Santana said, nodding to Brittany. "She's pissed about losing Nationals and I promised her if she let me back on, she'd win this year."

Brittany clapped and hugged Santana. "She let you back on the squad."

"She did," Santana replied.

Quinn couldn't help but smile. They may not always get along, but she was happy Santana was getting her life back. Her life may never be completely normal, but it was a start.

* * *

"Okay, Q, there's definitely some weird shit going on," Santana said as she marched into the choir room.

Quinn glanced around; she wasn't the only one in the room, and Kurt and Mercedes were both staring at Santana. She'd talked to her about being a little more low-key, but Santana didn't seem very good at it. The vampire may not look like herself to other people, but she made no attempt at disguising her voice or her attitude.

"Why do you say that, _Ana_?" Quinn asked, hoping she was giving her a look that told her she needed to be careful about what she said.

"Brittany isn't the Cheerio captain anymore," Santana stated.

Quinn frowned. "What? Why?"

"Sue Sylvester just made Poppin' Fresh the captain," Santana replied.

"Who?" Quinn asked, having no idea who Santana was referring to.

"That freak on the wrestling team," Santana replied.

"Lauren Zizes?" Kurt asked. "Sue Sylvester made Lauren Zizes the Cheerios captain? I'm not sure, but did hell just freeze over? Someone look outside and tell me if pigs are flying out there."

There was no way the woman would ever make Lauren Zizes captain. There was no way she would ever even let her on the squad. Her former coach was obsessed with their image and Lauren went against everything she looked for in a cheerleader. And to replace Brittany made even less sense. The blonde may not be the best leader—she was far too nice to be as tough as Quinn was—but she was better than any of the other options. And especially better than someone who had never been a cheerleader before. Quinn would think this was a joke, but Santana had no reason to lie about it and Sue definitely wouldn't make her captain as a joke. She was far too serious about the squad to do something like that.

"I am gonna end that tub of—"

"Ana!" Quinn interrupted before she could finish her sentence.

"This is frightening," Kurt said, eyeing Santana, and then turning to Mercedes. "Is it possible for someone to be reincarnated into someone else's body?"

Quinn rubbed her hand over her face as she shook her head. She didn't know why Santana couldn't be a little more inconspicuous. Brittany did her best to disguise her, but Santana was making it easy for anyone that knew her to recognize her. Although, no one would ever be able to prove anything and would just sound crazy if they ever tried to. Still, Santana didn't have to make it quite so obvious.

Santana rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Whatever."

"Quinn, may we speak?" Rachel said as she walked into the room.

Quinn shot Santana a glare, hoping to warn her not to say anything else, but she knew it was probably futile. She stood and followed Rachel into the hall, looking over her shoulder to find everyone in the room staring at her.

"Did you talk to Artie?" Quinn asked, figuring that's what this was about.

Rachel nodded. "I did."

"And?" Quinn asked.

"He told me exactly what he told you," Rachel said, sighing. "Either he really doesn't know anything like he's saying or he's very good at lying."

"Do you think he's lying?" Quinn wondered.

"No, I don't," Rachel answered. "I believe he was telling the truth."

Quinn had been hoping that Rachel would think Artie was lying. At least then she would have something to go on, but as it was, she had nothing. Just the feeling that this wasn't right. And now with Lauren being the captain of the Cheerios, there was a second thing that wasn't right. It still wasn't much to go on, though.

"What are you going to do now?" Rachel asked.

Quinn sighed. "I don't know. I tried doing some research last night, but I don't have enough information. There are thousands of possibilities and there's nothing to narrow it down. If Artie really doesn't know anything, I'm back at square one."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more use," Rachel said.

Quinn shook her head and said, "It's not your fault. Thanks for trying."

"I was more than happy to do it," Rachel replied, smiling at her.

Quinn cleared her throat. "We should probably get back in there."

"Yes, we wouldn't want for it to start without us," Rachel added.

Rachel turned, walking back into the choir room, but Quinn hesitated when she saw Coach Sylvester coming down the hall. She looked in the choir room and Mr. Schue wasn't there yet, so instead of going inside, Quinn jogged down the hall. She wanted to know what was going on with Lauren and figured it was best to go to the source.

"Coach Sylvester," Quinn called out.

"What is it, Fabray?" Sue asked, not bothering to stop or even slow down.

"Did you really make Lauren Zizes captain?" Quinn asked.

"Get to the point," Sue replied.

"Why?" Quinn asked.

"I don't see how that's any of your concern," Sue said. "You are no longer on the Cheerios." Sue suddenly stopped and turned toward her. "Zizes is the next Sue Sylvester. Just yesterday she shoved a girl into a locker because she wasn't moving fast enough. That's the type of captain I need to win Nationals this year."

"Did she pass?" Quinn asked.

Sue shrugged. "How should I know?"

Quinn frowned; her former coach put everyone through a vigorous series of tests to prove they were physically capable of doing her complicated routines. If they failed any test, they were automatically cut; everyone—even the girls currently on the squad—had to go through it every year, no exceptions.

"Get to class," Sue barked.

Quinn watched as her former coach walked away; something was definitely going on and she was going to have to figure out what it was. Before things actually got bad.

"Are you coming, Quinn?" Rachel's voice echoed down the hall.

* * *

Quinn glanced at her phone for what felt like the hundredth time that evening, but then went back to looking at the book sitting in front of her. She fidgeted with the pencil in her hands and then quickly jotted a note down on an index card. She'd been putting them in the books when she found a possible demon culprit; unfortunately there were dozens—if not more—in each book.

Sighing, she grabbed her phone and dialed Rachel's number. She may have deleted it from her phone, but she knew it by heart. She told herself she would never call her, but she really felt like she needed help right now and Rachel was the best she knew. The brunette managed to find things quicker than anyone; Quinn didn't know if it was just luck or if it was skill, but whatever the cause, she could really use it right now. Especially since she didn't have a lot of time before needing to patrol.

She told her Watcher what she suspected, but the woman didn't seem very concerned with it. She thought it was suspicious that Artie could walk again, but not enough to warrant putting all her focus on it. Until she could prove something was going on, her Watcher didn't really want to hear about it. She was more worried about the Council coming and making sure Quinn was prepared for that. She didn't know how patrolling was really going to prepare her, but Coach Beiste seemed extra concerned about the number of vampires and demons she slayed lately. Sometimes she wondered if the Watcher's Council had some sort of quota for her that she didn't know about.

"Quinn?" Rachel said the moment she picked up her phone. "Is everything okay? You're not hurt, are you? If you're hurt, tell me where you are and I'll be there as fast as—"

"I'm not hurt," Quinn said, talking over Rachel.

"Oh," Rachel breathed out.

Quinn rubbed her hand down her face and took a deep breath. "I—need your help. I'm not in trouble, but you know I'm terrible at research and my gut is telling me there's something going on and that I need to figure it out fast. I can't really explain it."

"I would be happy to help you," Rachel replied. "Are you at Brittany's?"

"The training room," Quinn replied.

"I'll be there in two minutes," Rachel stated before hanging up.

Quinn frowned at her phone, wondering how Rachel planned on getting there so quickly. Sure enough, though, there was a knock on the door only a few minutes later, and Quinn walked over to let her in.

"I called my father to let him know he doesn't have to pick me up," Rachel said, pocketing her phone.

"What were you doing here?" Quinn wondered.

"Oh, I was in the auditorium rehearsing," Rachel explained. "The Lima Theatre Guild is putting on a production of The Phantom of the Opera, so I was preparing a song."

"If you would rather do that, I wouldn't want to keep you from it," Quinn said.

"No, no," Rachel said, walking fully into the room. "I believe I have prepared enough. Really, I've been preparing since I was three years old, so I'm probably over prepared. I just hope they think I'm right for this part; I auditioned for two shows this summer, but they told me I didn't have the right look." Rachel huffed. "I will have you know, I would have made an excellent Oliver."

"You'll get it," Quinn said softly.

"Do you really think so?" Rachel asked with a hopeful gleam in her eyes.

"Yeah," Quinn said, looking away. "So, I've just been looking over books, but there isn't a lot to go on—nothing, really—and I really haven't found anything. I've marked any demon that it could possibly be, but as you can see, it's not helping much."

"Why don't we start with what we know," Rachel said, putting her hands on her hips, and walking to the folding table Quinn had set it. "Do you have a sheet of paper?"

"I think there's one under the books," Quinn said, riffling through them to find it.

"Thank you," Rachel said, taking the piece of paper from her. "Okay, we know Artie can walk again with no indication that he has been bound to a wheelchair for the past seven years."

"Did you hear about Lauren Zizes?" Quinn asked.

"I have not," Rachel replied.

"Coach Sylvester not only made her a Cheerio, but she replaced Brittany as the captain," Quinn stated.

Rachel furrowed her brows. "I would find it easier to believe that Artie miraculously began walking again." Rachel began writing. "There was also a student in one of my classes who got three hundred points on our recent exam."

"Why is that strange?" Quinn asked.

"It was only worth one hundred," Rachel replied, jotting it down. "Is that everything?"

Quinn sighed. "That I know of."

"It definitely isn't much, but maybe we will find a pattern or something linking it all together," Rachel said, sounding far more optimistic than Quinn felt. "Personally, I think it sounds more like someone is casting a spell than a demon."

"I thought so, too, which is why I talked to Brittany about it," Quinn replied. "She said it would be hard to do a spell to make Artie walk again and that it would be dangerous. It doesn't sound like something a person would do for no reason."

"These all sound more like things done for personal gain," Rachel said, looking over her list. "Being able to walk again, doing well on a test, becoming a cheerleader—these don't really sound like whoever or whatever is causing these things really has malicious intent. It sounds as if someone is giving these students what they want."

"You're right," Quinn said, leaning down so her elbows were resting on the table. "But what happens when someone wants something bad?"

"I see your point," Rachel said with a nod. "Let's ensure that it doesn't happen."

Quinn watched as Rachel sat down and pulled one of the books to her. She was grateful the brunette dropped everything to help her, but it was strange being there alone with her. Quinn tried to ignore the pang in her chest as she looked at Rachel. After a moment, she shook her head and looked away; she had other things to worry about right now and thinking about the girl in front of her was only going to distract her from them.

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Santana asked.

Quinn frowned as the rumbling sound grew louder and the floor slowly began to shake. She thought she heard the distant sound of screams, but it was hard to tell with the Cheerios being loud in the next room over.

"Is it an earthquake?" Brittany asked.

"I don't think so," Quinn said, walking toward the door.

She had never been in an earthquake, but this felt like something was coming toward them. Something big.

When she opened the door and walked into the locker room, most of the Cheerios were standing around in silence. This time, she distinctly heard a scream in the hall and headed toward the entrance to the locker room. The rumbling was growing and she knew whatever was causing it was getting closer. The halls were lined with students, who were all looking in the same direction, and no one seemed like they were going to move anytime soon.

"Get in a room!" Quinn ordered.

A few people looked at her, but no one listened; everyone was too busy staring down the hallway."

"Now!" Quinn barked.

"You heard her!" Santana yelled. "Métete en una habitación!"

Several of the students listened, getting into a room, and looking out like Quinn, Santana, and Brittany were.

"Maybe you should see what it is," Santana said, trying to push Quinn into the hall. "You are the Slayer."

"I'm the Slayer, I'm not stupid," Quinn said, rolling her eyes.

"Guys," Brittany said, nudging them.

"Dios mío," Santana said.

Several students ran into the locker room and then Quinn slammed the door shut, locking it. She looked through the window, but Santana shoved her to the side so she could see.

"Quinn, there's a T. rex on the football field," Brittany stated.

Santana and Quinn looked at each other for a moment and then rushed to the other side of the room. Just as she got to the window, there was a loud roar from outside. She almost couldn't believe her eyes; Brittany was right—there was a T. rex on the football field while other dinosaurs stampeded down the hall.

"Should we do something?" Brittany asked.

"We?" No," Santana replied. "Q? Yes."

Quinn scoffed. "I slay vampires and demons, not dinosaurs."

"I think your phone's ringing," Brittany said.

Quinn ran into the training room, which she'd left wide open, but thankfully, everyone seemed too busy watching the dinosaurs to notice. Her phone was on the bench and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw the number. If Rachel was calling her, it meant she was safe.

"Quinn! Rachel said before the blonde could get a word out. "Are you seeing this?"

"The T. rex?" Quinn asked. "Ye—"

Rachel gasped. "There's a Tyrannosaurus rex?

"Where are you?" Quinn asked.

"I'm in the choir room with Kurt, Tina, and Mike," Rachel answered.

"Good," Quinn said, leaning her forehead against the wall. "Secure the doors and stay there."

"We will," Rachel replied. "Are Brittany and S—Ana with you?"

"Yeah," Quinn replied.

"I hope everyone else is okay," Rachel said, sounding anxious.

"I'm sure they are," Quinn said even though she had no way of knowing. "Why don't you call everyone and tell them to find a safe place if they haven't. Let me know if you can't reach anyone."

"I will," Rachel replied. "And Quinn?"

"What?" the blonde asked.

"Please don't do anything foolish," Rachel replied.

Quinn couldn't help but smile softly. "Don't worry; I have no intention of fighting a dinosaur."

"Nevertheless, be careful," Rachel said.

"I will," Quinn promised.

She pocketed her phone and walked back into the locker room, shutting the training room door behind her this time. Everyone in the room was either at the door or on the other side of the room, staring out at the football field.

"Rachel, Kurt, Tina, and Mike are safe for now," Quinn said as she walked up to Brittany and Santana. "Rachel's going to see if she can get ahold of the others and call back." She tried to look outside, but everyone was in her way. "Is it still out there?"

"Yeah," Santana said, looking over her shoulder with a smirk. "Coach Sylvester stated walking out there. I've never seen her run so fast."

Quinn wondered how this was ever going to be explained. Hundreds of people were seeing this, and considering it was a bunch of high school students, they were probably all filming it and putting it online. She wondered what the Council was going to do—if they could do anything. It would probably be passed off as some sort of prank, but considering everyone was seeing it with their own eyes, she didn't know how well that would go over.

"Do you think people are hurt?" Brittany asked.

"Probably," Quinn said, not wanting to lie to her friend.

Brittany frowned. "Should we go out there and help them?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea, B," Santana said, wrapping her arm around her girlfriend. "Son of a bitch!"

"You might want to watch out for the sun," Quinn commented.

Santana scowled and backed away from the window. It had been cloudy, but now that the sun was shining through, Santana couldn't be at the window without beginning to smolder. Quinn took her spot at the window, pushing past a Cheerio, who tried to jump in the way. She wondered how many people were hurt in the halls. Luckily the T. rex was just wondering around the field, but if this had happened even thirty minutes before, the football team would have been out there for one of Coach Beiste's early morning workouts.

"Why did this happen?" Brittany whispered to her.

Quinn shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

* * *

Quinn was in the training room trying to focus on the book in front of her, but all the Cheerios in the locker room were distracting. They had been stuck in there all day and it didn't seem like it was going to end anytime soon. Apparently the authorities had no idea how to wrangle a bunch of dinosaurs. They had all been instructed to remain where they were, but that was the last thing announced and it had been over six hours prior.

Quinn was trying to use the opportunity to research, but she had found nothing. Other than there being three hard to believe events, she could find no commonality. Unfortunately, Brittany and Santana hadn't been very helpful; they were too busy staring out the window to get much research done. They were currently both in the locker room, and every little bit, Brittany would come in to update her even though nothing really changed.

Just as she leaned back to stretch, Quinn froze. She didn't know what she'd just heard, but it sounded like it was coming from above her. The sound wasn't very loud either, but it was loud enough to know she wasn't imagining it.

Quinn stood, staring at the ceiling, and followed the noise. It seemed to be moving across the room, coming from the direction of the locker room. She looked around for a weapon to grab, but before she could, there was a loud crash and a scream.

"Rachel!" Quinn said, gaping at her.

"That did not go quite as I had planned," Rachel said, sitting up.

"Did you come from the choir room?" Quinn asked as Rachel dusted herself off.

"Yes," the brunette replied.

"What if you had gotten hurt—or worse?" Quinn said, her voice rising.

"Well, I didn't," Rachel stated. "Though I have to admit, I was very lucky that I landed on this mat. Unfortunately, I got a little turned around up there and didn't know if I was going in the correct direction."

"Rachel!" Quinn said in exasperation, and trying not to stomp her foot like Rachel often did.

"I know it probably wasn't my best idea, but who knows how long it will take to get out of here if we don't find a way to fix this," Rachel replied. "I thought we may have more success if I was here to help."

"What if you had fallen through in the hall?" Quinn asked. "You could have died."

"I was fully aware of what could have happened," Rachel stated. "I thought it was more important that I come here, though. If the ceiling had seemed as if it wouldn't support my weight, I would not have tried to make the journey, but I felt like it was safe. Now, you can continue to tell me how dangerous it was or you can let me help you figure out what is happening."

Quinn sighed, shaking her head. "Fine."

She wanted to continue to tell Rachel how foolish she was, but that would only waste time, and she knew it wouldn't get her anywhere. Rachel was very stubborn, and once she made up her mind about something, there was no turning back. That also meant that no matter what Quinn said, Rachel would have still done it all over again if she had the chance.

"Are you going to sit down?" Rachel asked.

Quinn didn't say anything, but she did take a seat and grabbed the book she'd been looking at before Rachel fell through the ceiling. She could feel Rachel's eyes on her, but chose to ignore it.

"Are you mad at me?" Rachel asked.

"No," Quinn lied with a shrug. "Why would I be? You can do whatever you want."

Quinn almost added that it's not like they were together anymore, but she stopped herself. As strained as things were between them, Rachel was here to help, and Quinn didn't want to make things even more awkward between them. It was already bad enough being in a room with her; she didn't want to make things worse.

"Were did Rachel come from?"

They both turned to look at Brittany and Quinn said, "She dropped in."

Brittany shrugged, apparently needing no explanation. Santana appeared in the doorway as well, her eyebrow rising and eyes narrowing when she saw Rachel sitting in the room.

"Getting bored watching the T. rex?" Quinn asked.

"A little," Brittany replied. "I wish we could go home. I told Lord Tubbington I would let him go to the park; he's going to be mad at me."

"I'm sure he'll understand," Santana said softly.

"I hope so," Brittany replied. "He's not very nice when he's mad at me."

"I think they're gone!"

Quinn frowned as she stood and went into the locker room. She walked to the window to look at the football field and the T. rex was nowhere in sight. "Where did it go?"

"I don't know," the Cheerio beside her answered. "It just kind of disappeared."

"I don't see anything in the hallway, either," Rachel announced from the other side of the room.

"Well that's weird," Quinn mumbled.

"It's really gone?" Brittany asked. "Does this mean we can go home?"

"Maybe we wait a bit, B," Santana said. "I'm in no mood to be eaten today." Santana smirked. "Not by a dinosaur, anyway."

Quinn scrunched up her nose in disgust. "I didn't need to hear that."

Santana's smirk only grew. "Like you don't still think about doing that to Ber—"

Quinn clamped her hand over the vampire's mouth. "Okay, that's enough."

* * *

"Do you think we should order a pizza?" Rachel asked. "We have been her for quite some time without eating."

"You can," Quinn absentmindedly replied.

"You're not hungry?" Rachel inquired.

Quinn shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it."

She flipped the page and scanned over the text. She had no idea how late it was, but she knew it had to be getting up there. It was frustrating that they knew so little, but at least they were getting through the books more quickly with Rachel there.

"Maybe I can ask Brittany to bring something by for us," Rachel commented as she reached for her phone. "You know, they really should be helping."

"Artie wished every night," Quinn whispered.

"What?" Rachel asked, furrowing her brows.

"Artie said he wished every night that he would walk again," Quinn stated. "And Brittany wished we could leave." Quinn slid the open book to Rachel. "That's it."

"Wish granting demons," Rachel said, looking at the book. "Well, it certainly sounds like it could be the cause. Maybe Lauren wished she was captain of the Cheerios and—why would anyone wish for dinosaurs to invade the school?"

Quinn shrugged. "Who knows."

"I don't think it's a vengeance demon," Rachel commented.

"It sounds more like one of the chaos demons," Quinn said.

"Yes, there certainly was chaos today," Rachel agreed, pulling the book closer. "Chaos demons will grant any wish requested around them. They are drawn to places with large populations of people. That's probably why there were here at the school, but how did it grant Artie's wish?" Quinn pointed and Rachel looked down. "They are also drawn to individuals with a particularly strong desire to have their wish granted. Well, that explains that; I can imagine Artie wanted to walk more than anything."

"Unfortunately, it doesn't say how to stop them," Quinn noted.

"It mentions a power source, but it's very vague," Rachel said, sighing. "How are we going to find it when it looks human?"

"I don't know," Quinn replied. "But I'm guessing they'll be back here tomorrow.

"I agree," Rachel replied. "It's a lot of people in one building."

"Plus, teenagers are always wishing for stupid things," Quinn added. "Like dinosaurs."

"Do you think there's a chance we will be able to reverse everything?" Rachel asked.

Quinn let out a sigh as she said, "I don't know."

"We have to try, right?" Rachel asked.

"We do," Quinn replied.

She knew Rachel was thinking what she was thinking. If they reversed everything, Artie would be unable to walk again, but several people had been killed earlier and many more were injured. They could sacrifice those lives just so their friend could walk again.

"Do you think he will even remember?" Rachel asked.

"I have no idea," Quinn answered. "But I hope not."

"Should we patrol tonight?" Rachel asked, looking down.

"No." Quinn shook her head. "The demon could be anywhere. We know where it's probably going to be tomorrow, so I say we wait."

Rachel nodded. "I will call my father, then, and ask him to pick me up."

"I'll take you home," Quinn automatically said.

"Really?" Rachel asked. "You don't have to."

"It's the least I could do after you helped me all evening," Quinn said, shrugging.

"You were the one who found what was causing all of this," Rachel pointed out.

"Yes, but who knows how long it would have taken me to get to that book without you helping," Quinn remarked.

Rachel smiled, ducking her head. "Well, it isn't necessary, but I would be grateful for a ride home."

"Hopefully no dinosaurs trampled on my car," Quinn joked, but then she realized it was possible. "Oh god, I really hope they didn't."

"I wonder if your insurance would cover it," Rachel said, frowning.

"Something tells me no," Quinn replied.

She grabbed the book they'd found the demon in—she wanted to look through it more to see if she'd missed anything—and then headed for the door. Rachel followed, gasping when she saw the hall. It looked how Quinn imagined it was going to. Floor tiles were broken, lockers were dented, and police tape blocked off certain corridors.

"Do you think they will have school tomorrow?" Rachel asked as she looked around.

"Probably," Quinn replied.

It seemed like no matter what happened at the school, it never closed. There were numerous murders and suicides on campus, but classes always went on. Of course, if they didn't, school would probably be cancelled at least once a week.

"Do you think the authorities will cover up what happened here?" Rachel asked. "They probably have to, right? How would they ever explain a herd of dinosaurs in the hallways and a T. rex on the football field. The world would know there was something unusual about Lima if that was to ever get out." Rachel looked around the parking lot. "At least your car is intact." She frowned. "Although the same cannot be said for Kurt's SUV. I imagine he was not happy when he saw his vehicle."

Quinn unlocked the doors and the two got into the car. Rachel finally fell silent as Quinn made the familiar drive to the brunette's house.

* * *

Quinn walked down the hall, trying to act nonchalant as she looked around. She was trying to find the demon, but it was nearly impossible since it looked human. She was looking for someone she had never noticed in the halls before, but she paid so little attention to the people around her that she didn't recognize half the students.

"Any luck?" Rachel whispered.

"No," Quinn replied. "And I thought I told you I'm doing this part myself."

"You did, but I can't let you," Rachel replied.

"Rachel, I can do it myself," Quinn said, rolling her eyes.

"I know you _can_, but that doesn't mean you should have to," Rachel argued.

Not only did Quinn want to do the slaying on her own now, but she wanted to spare Rachel from being the reason Artie would be crippled again. Helping with the research was enough; she didn't want Rachel involved even further. This was Rachel, though, so she was fighting Quinn at every turn as the blonde knew she would

"Just let me help you," Rachel said, verging on begging. "With both of us looking, we will find the demon faster, and the faster we find it, the less likely something else will happen today. I mean, this is a big building and there are far too many students for you to—"

"Alight," Quinn interrupted. "You can help me look, but that's it.

Rachel smiled. "Well, we shouldn't waste any more time talking.

The brunette turned, walking down the hallway, and Quinn shook her head before following after her. Apparently she still couldn't say no to Rachel. Even after having her heart broken by the brunette and not talking to her for five months, she found herself falling right back into the way things used to be.

"What about that new kid Sam?" Rachel asked. "He seems awfully interested in you. Maybe he's the demon and he knows you're the Slayer."

"I don't think so," Quinn replied.

"How do you know?" Rachel argued.

"Because he wasn't in the locker room to grant Brittany's wish yesterday," Quinn answered.

"Oh," Rachel said, frowning. "I suppose you're right."

Rachel huffed. "Are you sure he's not a demon, though."

"I'm pretty sure," Quinn said in amusement. "He's just a teenage boy who wants something he's never getting. Thankfully, he finally got the hint when I not-so-subtly told him you're my ex-girlfriend."

They awkwardly glanced at each other before falling silent and looked around the hall. Quinn wished Brittany and Santana were there to help—and to be a buffer—but they were at Cheerios practice. Since they couldn't have it the previous day after school, Sue was making them have it for twice as long that morning.

Quinn looked around, trying to ignore the silence between them. She couldn't let this distract her from her duties even if she wanted to say something. But she needed to find this demon before anything else happened.

"Do you think—"

They both talked when a scream echoed down the hall and then Quinn began running toward the source. Without looking, she knew Rachel was following her. Sure enough, when Quinn finally stopped, the brunette bumped into her and mumbled an apology.

The girl who scream—Quinn guessed it was her, anyway—was staring at a Black Lab, her eyes wide and hands covering her mouth. Quinn didn't know why she had screamed or why there was a dog in the middle of the hall, but the girl wasn't the only one gawking at it.

"What happened?" Quinn asked Tina, who was nearby.

"Puck was just standing there and then there was a dog, instead," Tina answered.

The dog looked at Quinn and trotted over to her with a whimper.

"Oh my," Rachel said.

Quinn looked up and glanced around the hall at the group of students gathered around. One girl caught her eye; she was a blonde Quinn had never seen before and she was wearing a necklace she was fairly certain she _had_ seen. When they were researching demons over the summer, Brittany showed her a picture of a necklace that looked exactly like the one the girl was wearing. It had a deep blue stone, which was set in a gold design that almost looked Celtic in origin.

"Rachel," Quinn whispered, trying to not act suspicious.

"Is that really Noah?" Rachel asked.

"The girl by the lockers with the necklace," Quinn said, turning around so her back was to the demon. "I think that's it."

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked.

"I've seen that necklace in a book before," Quinn stated. "I remember because Brittany wanted Santana to get one for her."

"What are you going to do?" Rachel asked.

"I'm going to find a way to get her alone," Quinn said as she began trying to think of a plan to do just that.

* * *

"Are we sure about this?" Rachel asked, causing Quinn to jump.

"I told you to stay away," Quinn whispered harshly.

"I know, but I disagree with it, so I'm not going anywhere," Rachel said, crossing her arms. "You shouldn't have to do this alone and I'm not going to let you."

"Rachel, I don't have time to argue with you," Quinn said in annoyance.

"So don't," Rachel retorted.

"Go!" Quinn hissed.

"I'm not going anywhere," Rachel said, unmoving.

Quinn wanted to pull Rachel away and lock her in a room if she had to, but she didn't have the time. She had been tracking the demon and finally found her alone. It wasn't the most secluded spot—anyone could come by at any moment—but it would have to work.

"You know I can take care of myself," Rachel stated. "It's not as if I haven't been with you and even helped when you fought vampires or demons before."

Quinn huffed and looked away from Rachel. She obviously wasn't going to win this argument and didn't have the time to try. So, reluctantly, she rounded the corner and walked toward the demon. Only one person was looking her way and she hoped they didn't do anything stupid; it was now or never, though. As Quinn passed by, she grabbed the demon's arm, yanking it into a nearby classroom.

She quickly found out she wasn't wrong when she got punched and flew several yards, smashing into several desks. When she looked up, the girl's face had transformed into something less human looking.

"You shouldn't have done that," the demon said, slowly circling Quinn.

Quinn stood, trying not to wince at the pain radiating from her shoulder. The first part of her plan was complete—she got the demon alone—but now she needed to get the necklace away from it. She figured that's where its power source was and that destroying it would change everything back. Of course, it was all a guess, but she figured it was the only hope she had.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rachel come into the room. She had no way to tell her to stop without alerting the demon, so Quinn walked a little to her left, so it wouldn't see Rachel coming, too.

"Reverse everything," Quinn said, hoping to distract it.

The demon just laughed. "I don't think so."

"If you do, I'll let you go," Quinn said.

"I'll be going anyway," the demon stated. "You're the one that should be worried."

Quinn shrugged. "I've killed things far scarier and more powerful than you."

The demon's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess—you're the Slayer. I heard a rumor that there was one around."

Rachel was just behind the demon and Quinn held her breath when Rachel reached up toward the necklace. There was a look of surprise on the demon's face when Rachel pulled on the chain, and Quinn lunged forward. She wrapped her arms around the demon to keep it from hurting the brunette, and shoved it toward the tipped over desks. It tripped over them, sliding across the floor for a moment before jumping up.

It tried to tackle Rachel, but Quinn threw her weight into the demon, throwing them both to the side. She punched the demon, but it only kicked her off, and she landed on her back, finding herself pinned to the ground. Quinn struggled to free herself, but the demon was strong.

"Stop." Quinn looked up when the demon froze above her. Rachel was standing there with the necklace on the teacher's desk and paperweight hovering above it. "Let her go or I will smash it."

To Quinn's surprise, the demon let her go. They both stood and Quinn walked to Rachel, never taking her eyes off the demon. As she watched it take in Rachel's every move, it was obvious the demon would do anything to get its necklace back.

"What do I do?" Rachel whispered.

"I have an idea," Quinn replied. "A trade. You reverse everything that happened here except Artie's wish; if you do that and leave Lima, never coming back, we'll give you your necklace back."

"It's not that easy," the demon said.

"What if we wish it?" Rachel asked.

"It's your only choice," Quinn stated. "Otherwise, in five seconds, Rachel is going to smash it."

"Fine," the demon said when Rachel raised the paperweight. "I'll need the necklace to grant your wish, though."

Quinn pulled the necklace off the desk and held it out; the demon grabbed it, putting it back on. Quinn expected it to try to pull something, but it just stood there waiting.

"I wish you would reverse all the wishes you granted except Artie Abrams' and that you'll leave Lima and never come back."

"That's two wishes," the demon said.

"Fine, I wish for you to reverse everything you did here except Artie's wish," Quinn stated.

"Done," the demon replied.

"And I wish for you to leave Lima and never return," Rachel added.

"Done," the demon repeated, vanishing a moment later in a puff of smoke.

"Do you really think things are back to normal?" Rachel asked.

"There's one way to find out," Quinn said, heading for the hallway.

"There's no dent," Rachel declared, pointing to one of the rows of lockers. "There was a dent there earlier."

A smile grew on Quinn's face as she stared down the hallway. "He's still walking."

"You did it," Rachel said, beaming at her.

"We did it," Quinn corrected. "Thank you."

"I was happy to help," Rachel replied.

"I should get to the training room," Quinn said. "Coach Beiste will want to know what happened. Although, I don't think she's going to be very happy with me for letting the demon go."

"Whether or not she's happy about it, I think you did the right thing," Rachel said, giving her a soft smile.

Quinn took a few steps, and hesitated for a moment as she looked over her shoulder at Rachel. Shaking her head slightly, she turned and continued walking down the hall. As nice as it was having Rachel's help again, she couldn't let herself fall right back into the way things were. She wasn't going to let herself be that dependent on someone again, and she definitely wasn't willing to risk getting her heart broken again. However, part of her wished she could just forget about the past six months and go back to the way things used to be; she really wanted to be happy again and that was hard to do without Rachel in her life.

* * *

**If anyone's seen my twitter or tumblr, you know I'm on a writing break for a while. This was the last thing I wrote since I wanted to give you all one more update before I went on hiatus. My best guess is that chapter four will be up sometime in late January; I'll have it on my tumblr when I know a specific date.**


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